They like to live near people and seem to respond to the affection shown them in the South, where they are such favorites that they are seldom molested. Formerly mockingbirds were trapped for cage-birds, as were cardinals, but this practice is largely discontinued now, because of protective laws and aroused public sentiment.
Dr. Henry W. Henshaw says: “It is not surprising that the mockingbird should receive protection principally because of its ability as a songster and its preference for the vicinity of dwellings. Its place in the affections of the South is similar to that occupied by the robin in the North. It is well that this is true, for the bird appears not to earn protection from a strictly economic standpoint. About half of its diet consists of fruit, and many cultivated varieties are attacked, such as oranges, grapes, figs, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Somewhat less than a fourth of the food is animal matter, of which grasshoppers are the largest single element. The bird is fond of cottonworms, and is known to feed on the chinch bug, rice weevil, and bollworm. It is unfortunate that it does not feed on injurious insects to an extent to offset its depredations on fruit.”[121]
Professor Beal says, however, “The mockingbird will probably do little harm to cultivated fruits so long as wild varieties are accessible and abundant.”[122] Wise cultivators of fruit take this into consideration and plant accordingly, to keep both their fruit and the delightful, amusing mockingbirds.
YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO
THE YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO
Cuckoo Family—Cuculidæ
Length: About 12 inches; tail over 6 inches.
Male and Female: Brownish-gray above with a greenish tinge; white underneath; reddish-brown wings; feathers brightest on inner web; middle tail feathers brownish-gray; outer ones black, broadly tipped with white, tips decreasing in size toward center; lower mandible of bill yellow except at the end.
Notes: A rapid, guttural utterance of the words cook-cook-cook-cook and cow-cow-cow-cow. Our cuckoos sometimes give a cooing note, but do not say cuck′-oo like their European relatives.
Flight: Swift and difficult to observe, as the cuckoo glides rapidly from bough to bough, under cover if possible.
Nest: A loosely-constructed platform of sticks.
Habitat: Orchards, woodlands, park-like estates, and quiet shady streets. Cuckoos are occasionally seen in exposed, sunny places.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from southern Canada and northern United States as far west as North Dakota and as far south as northern Louisiana and Florida; winters south to Argentina.
The BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO is similar to the Yellow-bill in general appearance, but has several marked differences. Its upper parts are more greenish; its tail-feathers have smaller white tips; its wings are gray, not reddish-brown; its bill is black, not yellow; its eye-ring is red.
Cuckoos seem to have less individuality than many of our birds; they resemble several of them. They are not unlike catbirds in their quiet, stealthy movements; they are slender, gray-and-white, and long-tailed like mockingbirds; they build nests somewhat like those of mourning doves.
They are shy, solitary birds, that are known by their note rather than by sight. I never heard of any one but Wordsworth and Wilson Flagg who loved cuckoos or called them “darlings of the spring.” The European cuckoo has, however, a very different nature and a more joyous note.
Burroughs is most amusing in his comments. He says: “We cannot hail our black-billed as ‘blithe newcomer,’ as Wordsworth does his cuckoo. ‘Doleful newcomer,’ would be a fitter title. There is nothing cheery or animated in his note, and he is about as much a ‘wandering voice’ as is the European bird. He does not babble of sunshine and of flowers. He is a prophet of the rain, and the country people call him the rain crow. All his notes are harsh and verge on the weird.”[123]