“Some cloudy morning early in the month, you will hear a new call. At first it may suggest the coo-oo-oo of the Mourning Dove, then the drumming of the Flicker, but after waiting for a moment you realize that it is neither. The first sound is like that made by clicking the tongue rapidly against the roof of the mouth; the second sounds like cow-cow-cow-cow-cow repeated in quick succession. By this you will know that the Yellow-billed Cuckoo has come.
“You will be disappointed when first you see the bird itself, for it does not in the least resemble the bird of the English poets, who lives in Cuckoo clocks and bobs out to tell the hours. Neither is it a lazy bird who refuses to build a nest and leaves its eggs to the care of others like the Cowbird.