File:Birdcraft - a field book of two hundred song, game, and water birds (1897) (14748589931).jpg

Identifier: birdcraftfield00wrig (find matches)
Title: Birdcraft : a field book of two hundred song, game, and water birds
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Wright, Mabel Osgood, 1859-1934 Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 1874-1927
Subjects: Birds -- United States
Publisher: New York : Macmillan Co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Text Appearing Before Image:
m New Brunswick, Canada,Minnesota, Nevada, and Oregon south to Costa Rica and theWest Indies. Less common from the eastern border of thePlains westward. Of similar general appearance to the next species, thisCuckoo may be identified by the following marks: yellowbill, bright cinnamon wings, and white S2:)0ts on the long tailfeathers which are very conspicuous in flight. A few yearsago the Yellow-billed Cuckoo was not a common bird here;but it seemed to follow the recent epidemic of tent-wormsinto Connecticut, and for the past two seasons has beenabundant in orchards and gardens containing fruit trees,forgetting its shyness, and coming close to dwellings. Itshatred of the tent-worm is intense, for it destroys manymore than it can eat, by tearing the webs apart, and squeez-ing the worms in its beak. So thoroughly has it done itswork, that orchards, which three years ago were almostleafless, the trunks even being covered by slippery web-bing, are again yielding a good crop. 202 PLATE 50.
Text Appearing After Image:
yp:ll()W-billed cuckoo. Length, 11-12 inches. SONGLESS BIRDS. Cuckoos Audubon gives this bird a bad character, saying: It robssmaller birds of their eggs, which it sucks upon all occa^sions, and is cowardly without being vigilant. On this ac-count, it falls a prey to several species of Hawks, of whichthe Pigeon-hawk may be considered its most dangerousenemy, Be this as it may, both of our Cuckoos are respectableexamples to their romantic but misguided European rela-tive, for, like it, they lay their eggs at long intervals; butthey still manage to scramble a nest together and rear theirown young, though they have to face the responsibility offeeding nestlings, incubating, and laying more eggs, all atthe same time. So let us forgive the Cuckoo its faults,and declare it the patron bird of the orchards and of over-crowded nurseries. Black-billed Cuckoo: Coccyzus erythrophthalmus* Rain Crow. Length: 11-12 inches. Male and Female: Black bill; eyelids red. Above, general colouringsame as las

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