Range. - United States east of the Plains and from southern Canada southward.

This species is generally abundant in all localities in its range, which afford suitable nesting places of tangled underbrush or vines. It may be distinguished from the Black-billed variety by its larger size (12 inches long), blackish tail with broad white tips, and yellowish lower mandible. They are often regarded by the superstitious as forecasters of rain, and as omens, probably because of their gutteral croaking notes.

Mangrove Cuckoo. Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

A. R. Spaid. Nest and eggs of yellow-billed cuckoo

Their nests are made of twigs, lined with shreds of grape vine bark or catkins; the nests are generally very shabbily made and so flat on the top that the eggs frequently roll off. They are located near the ground in bushes or low trees. The three or four eggs are deposited at intervals of several days, and frequently young birds and eggs are found in the nest at the same time. Like the Flicker, this bird will frequently continue laying if one egg is removed at a time, and as many as twelve have been taken from the same nest, by this means. The eggs are light greenish blue. Size 1.20 x .90. They are usually laid during May or June.

Pale greenish blue.

387a. California Cuckoo. Coccyzus Americanus Occidentalis

Range. - Western North America, from British Columbia, southward.

Slightly larger and with a stouter bill than the last. Eggs not distinguishable.

387a - 389