Jean Ritchie's "The Cuckoo"

Jean Ritchie- lovely acapella version

Jean Ritchie- "The Cuckoo" different version 1952

Yellow-billed and Black billed cuckoos breed both in Maine (where we live) and New Hampshire, (Where Allison lives). Yellow-billed: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-billed_Cuckoo/lifehistory "Yellow-billed Cuckoos sometimes lay their eggs in other birds' nests—although they don't do this nearly as often as the Common Cuckoo of Eurasia, which made the behavior famous. When outbreaks of cicadas, tent caterpillars, gypsy moths, and other prey create an abundant food supply, Yellow-billed Cuckoos sometimes lay eggs in nests of other cuckoos as well as in those of American Robins, Gray Catbirds, and Wood Thrushes. "

Black-billed: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-billed_Cuckoo/lifehistory "Like its Old World relatives, the Black-billed Cuckoo is known occasionally to lay eggs in the nest of other bird species... Black-billed Cuckoos occasionally eat eggs of other birds."