LAND BIRDS. 337 



Order XIV. COCCYGES. Cuckoos, Kingfishers, etc. 



KEY TO FAMILIES. 



A. Toes two before and two behind, the front toes separate to the base; 



bill about as long as head. Family 43. Cuculidse. Cuckoos. 



(Only two Michigan species). 

 AA. Toes three in front and one behind, two of the front toes grown together 



for half their length; bill longer than head, its cutting edges minutely 



saw-toothed. Family 45. Alcedinidce. Kingfishers. (Only one 



Michigan species). 



Family 43. CUCULID^. Cuckoos. 



KEY TO SPECIES. 



A. Basal half of lower mandible yellow; most of the tail-feathers white 

 tipped, the outer ones for an inch or more (Fig. 84). Yellow- 

 billed Cuckoo. No. 161. 



A A. Bill all black; tail-feathers with narrow white tips, the longest tip not 

 half an inch (Fig. 86). Black-billed Cuckoo. No. 162. 



161. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Coccyzus americanus americanus {Linn.). 



(387) 



Synonyms: Rain-crow, Rain-dove, Kow-Kow, Chow-Chow. — Cuculus americanus. 

 Linn., 1758. — Coccyzus americanus, Bonap., 1824, and authors generally. 



Plate XXXII and Figures 84, 85. 



Reference to the plate will serve to separate the cuckoo from all other 

 birds, and the present species may be known from the only other Michigan 

 cuckoo by the yellow lower jaw, the cinnamon in the wings, and the large 

 white "thumb-marks" on the outer tail-feathers (Compare figures 84 and 

 86). 



Distribution. — Eastern temperate North America, breeding from Florida 

 north to New Brunswick, Canada, and Minnesota, west to the eastern 

 border of the Plains, and south in winter to Costa Rica and the West Indies. 



The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is generally distributed throughout the state 

 but probably is somewhat less common in the northern sections than farther 

 south; it is, however, nowhere 

 abundant and although at the 

 proper season you may see or 

 hear cuckoos almost any day 



or night, it would be difficult in ^.^ g^ ^^^^^ tail-fcatl.rrs of Vdlow'-b.lled Cuckoo, 

 most places to find half a dozen From Hoffinann'.s Guide. 



. '■ . 1 li? 1 ) 1 i Courtesy of Houghton, Mifflin <& Co. 



specimens m a halt day s hunt- 

 ing. The two species of cuckoo are so similar in general appearance and so 

 often confounded that most of our notes for the state are badly mixed and 

 43 



