MOROCOCCYX.—DIPLOPTERUS. 539 
This peculiar Cuckoo was first described by Lesson in 1842! from a specimen 
obtained by Adolphe Lesson at “San Carlos,” Central America, and was afterwards 
figured by Des Murs in his ‘ Iconographie Ornithologique’?. In Mexico it seems to be 
restricted in its range to the western side of the mountains, and is found from Mazatlan 
to Tehuantepec, and is by no means rare. In Guatemala we only observed it in the 
valley of the Motagua river; but it probably also occurs on the Pacific side of the 
mountains, as there is a specimen in the Bremen Museum said to have been obtained 
on the slopes of the Volcan de Fuego by Mr. Sarg. Southwards of Guatemala it is 
found through Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, which is the extreme limit of its 
range in this direction, as we have no record of its occurrence in Chiriqui or any part 
of the State of Panama. | 
In habits this bird somewhat resembles Geococcyx affinis, but is not nearly so 
conspicuous. It lives in the brushwood, and may be seen walking on the ground, now 
running rapidly, now standing still with its head erect. It climbs, too, about the 
branches of the low underwood. It is very tame, and is difficult to shoot without 
damaging the specimen, as both Taylor and ourselves found. Its note is short and 
rich, and uttered at intervals, so that the natives both in Guatemala ® and Nicaragua !° 
call it “ El reloj,” or Clock-bird, saying that its song marks the hours. Mr. Nutting, 
who says it is abundant at Sucuya !°, also remarks that its nest is placed in grass, but 
he is silent as to the colour and texture of the eggs. 
The bare skin round the eye in life is cobalt-blue. 
Subfam. DIPLOPTERINA. 
The two genera which constitute this subfamily are very different in their general 
appearance and in the shape of the bill, but they have a common character in the 
great length and fullness of the upper tail-coverts, the longest of which nearly reach 
to the end of the rectrices. In habits the members of both genera are semiterrestrial, 
that is to say, they live on or near the ground. They fly readily, but for short distances. 
The subfamily is purely neotropical, and has no near allies in the Old World. 
DIPLOPTERUS. 
Diplopterus, Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 977; Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xix. p. 423. 
‘The single species of this genus is a peculiar bird of wide range in South and Central 
America. In having long upper tail-coverts it resembles Dromococcyx, but has little 
else in common with that genus. ‘The bill is short and compressed, the culmen arched, 
the nostrils elongated, opening along the lower edge of the nasal fossa; the eyelashes 
are strong curved bristles, the posterior ones having barbs on one side near the base. 
The wings are more pointed than in the preceding genera, the secondaries being short ; 
the feathers of the bastard wing are large and full, and are spread in life, and being 
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