522 CUCULIDA. 
1858. <A party of eight or ten individuals was observed sitting very quietly in a tree at 
some distance from the ground, and being quite regardless of the gun, or the presence 
of man, several were obtained. The specimens labelled as females proved to be slightly 
larger than those marked as males. We have no representatives of JZ. pallescens from 
this region; but a little further south Mr. Wyatt once met with it in the forest near 
Paturia in the Magdalena Valley 3, and Salmon secured several examples in the Cauca 
Valley 4, and he noted the contents of the stomach as “ lizards &c.,” a variation from 
the usual insect diet of all the members of the family. 
Fam. CUCULIDE. 
The family of Cuculide is one of nearly world-wide distribution, being absent only 
in the extreme northern and southern portions of the world. In the temperate regions 
the species are few and migratory, whilst in the tropics they abound, and here we find 
most of the genera. 
In Captain Shelley’s recently compiled ‘Catalogue of the Cuculide,’ the family is 
divided into six subfamilies containing in all forty-two genera and about 172 species. 
Of these the Cuculine, with seventeen genera, is represented in America by Coccyzus 
alone with about eleven species. The Centropodine is a purely Old-World subfamily. 
The Pheenicophaine containing sixteen genera has, as purely American representatives, 
Saurothera with five species, Hyetornis with one, and Piaya with four species. ‘The 
Neomorphine is more strictly American, and is only represented in the Old World by 
the Bornean and Sumatran Carpococcyx ; Neomorphus, Geococcyx, and Morococcyx being 
purely American, and contain five, two, and one species respectively. The Diplopterine, 
with Diplopterus (one species) and Dromococcyx (two species), is found in America 
alone, as is the Crotophagine with two genera, Crotophaga (three species) and Guira 
(one species). 
America, then, owns exclusively two subfamilies—Diplopterine and Crotophagine ; 
it shares the Cuculine, Pheenicophaine, and Neomorphine with the Old World, but 
has no representative of the Centropodine. 
Only eleven of the total of forty-two of the genera of Cuculide are found in America, 
and only thirty-six of about 172 species. 
Comparing the representatives of the family in the Nearctic and Neotropical regions, 
we find Coccyzus in North America, with three species (two of which are migrants), 
some of which pass their breeding-season in the North-American continent. One of 
the species of Geococcyx is found along the southern border of the region, and two 
species of Crotophaga just pass beyond the limits of the Neotropical region. 
In Mexico and Central America eight of the eleven genera are found, and fifteen of 
the thirty-six species. These are widely distributed over the area, the greater number 
of species occurring in the southern portion bordering the southern continent. 
