COMMON BIRDS: SECOND SERIES. 
Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 23. 
[COCCYZUS AMERICANUS.] 
South of Massachusetts the two Cuckoos, the Yellow-billed 
and the Black-billed, are often equally common. In northern New 
England, however, the Yellow-billed is rarely, if ever, found. The 
habits of the two birds are essentially alike. Both are quiet and 
retiring, slipping unseen from one thick mass of foliage to another; 
or, if seen, preserving such immobility on alighting that their slim 
figures are hardly to be distinguished. The food of the Cuckoo 
consists largely of caterpillars, which the bird finds among the 
foliage, and its activity is thus highly beneficial. It is particularly 
useful in attacking the tent caterpillar, an insect which most other 
birds avoid. The two Cuckoos arrive in New England about the 
10 th of May, and a few linger into September or later. They 
spend the winter in tropical America. They may be distinguished 
by their notes, and on a near view by their marks. The call of 
the Yellow-billed Cuckoo is more wooden than that of the other 
species. Besides the rapidly repeated cow-cow-cow , the bird often 
utters a soft, gentle coo , repeating the note again and again. The 
reproach which attaches to the European Cuckoo and to our Cow- 
bird of shirking the duties of maternity, cannot be brought against 
the American Cuckoos. They make nests, rude though they are, 
of loose twigs, and on these hatch and rear their young. The 
eggs of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo are light greenish-blue, and are 
sometimes laid at irregular intervals, so that eggs and young of 
various ages may be found in the same nest. 
