The RAIN or YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO (_Coccygus Americanus_) represents a group of the above birds characterised by their thin, delicate, compressed, and pointed beak, which is slightly curved, and almost equals the head in length. The feet are short, and wings long. The long graduated tail is composed of ten slender feathers. The plumage of the Rain Cuckoo is entirely of a light greyish brown above, and greyish white on the under side. The exterior quills are bordered with brownish orange, the tail-feathers black, tipped with white, the eye is deep brown, the upper mandible brownish black, and lower one of a yellow shade; the feet are blueish grey. This bird is twelve inches and a half in length; the wing measures five inches and a half, and the tail six inches and three-quarters. "A stranger who visits the United States," says Wilson, "and passes through our woods in the month of May or June, will sometimes hear, as he traverses the borders of deep, retired, high-timbered hollows, an uncouth guttural sound or note, resembling the syllables 'kowe, kowe,' beginning very slowly, but ending so rapidly that the notes seem to run into each other. He will hear this frequently without being able to discover the bird or animal from which it proceeds, as it is both shy and solitary, always seeking the thickest foliage for concealment. This is produced by the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, which, from its cry, is known in Virginia as the Cow Bird. It is also called the Rain Crow, being observed to be most clamorous immediately before rain."