Volume Ii Part 8 (2/2)

[Plate XIII.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: COCCYZUS CINEREUS.]

+Coccyzus cinereus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 108; _Hudson, P. Z.

S._ 1870, p. 88 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 620 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 28 (Entrerios); _Withington, Ibis_, 1888, p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora).

_Description._--Above cinereous, wings blackish; tail above blackish, beneath cinereous; lateral rectrices tipped with white: beneath, throat and breast pale cinereous, pa.s.sing into white in the middle of the belly; under wing-coverts, flanks, and crissum ochraceous; bill black: whole length 90 inches, wing 45, tail 45.

_Female_ similar.

_Hab._ Paraguay and Argentine Republic.

The Cinereous Cuckoo is smaller than the preceding species, and also differs in having a square tail and a more curved beak. The beak is black, and the irides blood-red, which contrasts well with the blue-grey of the head, giving the bird a bold and striking appearance.

This species is not common, but it is, I believe, slowly extending its range southwards, as within the last few years it has become much more common than formerly. Like other Cuckoos, it is retiring in its habits, concealing itself in the dense foliage, and it cannot be attracted by an imitation of its call, an expedient which never fails with the Coucou.

Its language has not that deep mysterious, or _monkish_ quality, as it has been aptly called, of other _Coccyzi_. Its usual song or call, which it repeats at short intervals all day long during the love-season, resembles the song of our little dove (_Columbula picui_), and is composed of several long monotonous notes, loud, rather musical, but not at all plaintive. It also has a loud harsh cry, which one finds it hard to believe to be the voice of a Cuckoo, as in character it is more like the scream of a Dendrocolaptine species.

The figure (Plate XIII.) is taken from a specimen of this species obtained by Mr. Frank Withington in the Lomas de Zamora, and now in Sclater's collection.

274. COCCYZUS PUMILUS, Strickl.

(DWARF CUCKOO.)

+Coccyzus pumilus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 108; _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 28, (Entrerios).

_Description._--Above brownish cinereous, head grey; tail like the back, but tail-end black with narrow white tips: beneath, throat and breast chestnut-red; abdomen white; under wing-coverts and crissum ochraceous: whole length 90 inches, wing 40, tail 42. _Female_ similar.

_Hab._ South America.

Of this little Cuckoo, the smallest of the genus _Coccyzus_, specimens were obtained by Mr. Barrows at Concepcion in Entrerios, in the month of December. The species was only previously known to occur in Venezuela and Colombia.

Fam. XXVIII. RHAMPHASTIDae, or TOUCANS.

In the second edition of his 'Monograph of the Toucans,' Gould admits 51 species of this fine and peculiar group, which are scattered over the forests of Tropical America, from Southern Mexico to Northern Argentina.

Several others have been since described.

The Toucans are large birds exclusively arboreal in their habits, and feeding mostly, if not entirely, upon fruit. A single species of wide distribution reaches its southern limit in the forests of the northern Argentine provinces.

275. RHAMPHASTOS TOCO, Gm.

(TOCO TOUCAN.)

+Rhamphastos toco+, _Gould, Mon. Rhamphast._ ed. 2, pl. i.; _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 108; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 620 (Oran and Misiones).

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