220 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
getlier, and seems to cease from mere lack of 
breath. It is the Yellow-bill, but you can 
neither see him nor fairly locate the sound. 
It is full, clear, 
and reverberating, 
yet has a weird, 
wandering char¬ 
acter, which eludes 
your grasp, but 
irresistibly allures 
you to search it out. 
His song continues 
through the whole 
summer, though 
perhaps not so fre¬ 
quently rendered as 
during the mating 
season. You may 
hear it in warm, 
still nights for 
hours together; es¬ 
pecially clamorous 
before a storm, Vir¬ 
ginia farmers think. 
Besides his loud 
rattle, ho will sit 
on a low branch, 
and with a peculiar 
swaying motion of 
his body plaintive¬ 
ly repeat the syllables ko-koo, Ico-lcoo, ko-koo, 
which seem to be a love-song, addressed to his 
mate not so often as to himself. The Yellow¬ 
billed Cuckoo comes to us, along Lake Erie, the 
last week in April, and the Black¬ 
billed soon follows. Wintering 
in Mexico and the West Indies— 
where the Black-billed is known 
as the St. Domingo Bird—they 
spread over all the Eastern United 
States, as far north as Boston, 
where, it is said, the first-named 
is becoming rare. The males 
arrive some ten days before the 
females, and spend the time very 
amicably and busily, seeking the re¬ 
tired portions of the woods and the 
thickety banks of small streams. 
There one bird will take possession 
of a tree, and never leave it until 
every branch has been thorough¬ 
ly explored; and lively must be 
the insect which escapes his sharp 
eyes and still sharper beak. Their 
taste is varied and their appetite 
always good. The abundance of 
different insects which make the 
trees their home, and deposit their 
eggs which hatch out larvae under 
the bark or upon the leaves, parti¬ 
cularly the canker-worms which 
infest the apple-trees, furnish their chief sub¬ 
sistence. Occasionally they treat themselves to 
berries; and luckless snails and small frogs 
find themselves in rather than on their bill of 
fare. If their epicurean habits stopped here, 
well and good ; but they are accused, and 
justly too, I fear, of sucking their neighbors’ 
nest-eggs. It is not infrequent to find shells in¬ 
dented by a bird’s beak and emptied of their 
contents; sometimes left in the nest with others 
uninjured, but oftener lying on the ground un¬ 
der it. The many broken eggs which we find 
strewed about in the woods must, partially at 
least, be ascribed to the Cuckoo’s depredations, 
though the Blue-jay is not less guilty. 
A week or so after the first appearance of the 
males the females arrive. The busy food-hunt¬ 
ing of the males ceases immediately, and they 
devote themselves with all ardor to the females, 
courting them with the greatest assiduity, and 
wooing them by all the means in their power. 
the black-billed CUCKOO. —(Coccygus erythrophlhalmus.) 
At this time the most obstinate battles take 
place between the jealous males for the posses¬ 
sion of some coveted lady bird; but before long 
they all pair and commence building. This 
USING TIIE TltOCAR IN HINGING A BULL.—(,b'«C page 218.) 
happens about the 15th of May in ordinary sea¬ 
sons. The nest is sometimes fixed on the hori¬ 
zontal branch of an apple-tree; usually in a 
solitary crab, thorn, or cedar, in sequestered 
woods. It is merely an almost level platform 
of twigs, intermixed with soft weeds and maple 
blossoms. That of the Yellow-bills can be seen 
through, it is so scant; but the Black-bill’s is 
more compact, and contains more flowers. On 
this almost flat bed the two to four eggs are 
laid. These are uniform greenish blue,, darker in 
the case of the Black-billed than of the Yellow¬ 
billed species, and of a size proportionate to 
that of the bird. There are some curious facts 
in connection with their nidification. 
As if unable to break away altogether from 
the inscrutable nature of their foreign congen¬ 
ers, both Cuckoos sometimes lay one or two 
eggs in the nests of other birds; more generally 
(it is my opinion) in each other’s nests. But 
they do not seem to intend to abandon 
them to the charge 
of a foster-parent, 
but rather to usurp 
the nest for their 
own use, being a 
little lazy perhaps. 
The eggs of the 
Cuckoo vary greatly 
in size—even those 
of the same “lay” 
—so that it is puz¬ 
zling sometimes to 
determine whether 
they really are genu¬ 
ine ; and it is said 
that you may often 
find one egg fresh, 
while the rest are 
more or less addled, 
or even hatched. 
One of the worst 
reputations in the 
animal kingdom is 
borne by the Euro¬ 
pean Cuckoo, for its 
nefarious habit of 
leaving its eggs to 
the care of other birds, and building no nest of 
its own. Our Cow-bunting is equally wicked, 
and rumor says our Cuckoos do the same, 
but we have seen that this is not so, for both 
species build a nest and attend 
closely to home duties. Notwith¬ 
standing his piratical course of life, 
the American Cuckoo is an arrant 
coward, and small birds, when 
defending their homes, will whip 
him beautifully. Dr. Samuels tells 
us that he saw a Blue-bird drive a 
Yellow-bill into a barn, and keep 
him there, standing guard out¬ 
side ; and so badly scared was the 
Cuckoo, that he allowed the Doctor 
to catch him, preferring to fall 
into the hand of the enemy within 
rather than face the danger without. 
Despite their bad habits and 
cowardly dispositions, I love the 
Cuckoos. They come early and stay 
late. They are lively and industri¬ 
ous, and their call is to me one of 
the most pleasing of sylvan notes. 
Then, too, they have a sort of well- 
bred air about them, and . there 
is a charm in their carriage and 
flight, which, together with their 
rich dress and elegant form, makes 
them two of the most attractive of 
wood-birds, among which choice is so difficult. 
Spatlum (Lewisia rediviva). 
One of our friends holds a very comfortable 
doctrine. He says if one really wishes a thing, 
he will get it; if what he wishes does not come 
to pass, it only shows that lie does not wish 
with sufficient earnestness. Our experience 
with the Spatlum is a partial confirmation of 
our friend’s peculiar belief. Having long known 
the plant by description and from dried speci¬ 
mens, we had a strong desire to sec it in the 
living state, and had written to friends in the far 
TVest, in the hope of obtaining it. Just as we 
had ascertained the address of one who knew 
the plant and could send it, and were about 
