BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 83 



129 (Cliichen-Itza, Yucatan).— Dearborn, Pub. 125, Field Mus. N. H., 1907, 



87 (bet. El Ranclio and Guatemala City and near Lake Atitlan, Guatemala). 

 G[eococcyx] affinis Gray, Gen. Birds, ii, 1847, 453. — Bonaparte, Consp. Av., i, 



1850, 97. — Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Hist. N. Am. Birds, ii, 1874, 471. — 



RiDGWAY, Man. N. Am. Birds, 1887, 273. 

 [Geococcyx] affinis Sclater and Salvin, Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, 107. — Sharpe, 



Hand-list, ii, 1900, 174. 



Genus NEOMORPHUS Gloger. 



Neomorphm Gloger, in Froriep's Notizen, xvi, 1827, 278. (Type, Coua geof- 



froyi Temminck.) 

 CuUrides Pucheran, Rev. Zool., 1845, 51. (Type, Coua geoffroyi Temminck.) 



Very large (length about 470-500 mm.), long-tailed, long-legged, 

 crested terrestrial Cuculinse with bill much deeper than wide, the 

 culmen elevated and narrow, compressed into a narrow ridge basally; 

 nostrils slit-like, overhung by a very broad operculum; longest 

 primaries not longer than longest secondaries, the first (innermost) 

 but little shorter than the longest (second, third, and fourth) ; color 

 above mostly plain brown or olive, the scapulars, wings, and tail 

 glossed with bronze-green and purple, lateral rectrices without white 

 tips, the under parts light bro\vnish, with a broken band of black 

 across chest. 



Bill about as long as or slightly shorter than head, very deep and 

 moderately compressed basally, its depth at anterior end of nostrils 

 equal to about one and a half times its width at same point; culmen 

 (from base) about two-thirds as long as tarsus, strongly decurved 

 from base, narrow, compressed into a narrow ridge basally; gonys 

 shorter than mandibular rami, nearly straight (faintly decurved 

 terminally), rounded, but with a median sulcus for about basal half; 

 maxillary tomium distinctly but moderately concave for anterior half 

 or more, slightly deflected and faintly convex posteriorly. Nostril 

 slit-like, longitudinal, overhung by a very broad, convex, operculum. 

 Wing short, excessively rounded, the longest primaries no longer 

 (sometimes shorter) than longest secondaries; first to fifth or second 

 to fourth primaries longest, the sixth to tenth (outermost) successively 

 shorter, the tenth (outermost) slightly more than half as long as the 

 longest. Tail about one and a half times as long as wing, graduated 

 for about one-third its length or slightly less, the rectrices very broad. 

 Tarsus nearly twice as long as middle toe without claw, more than 

 two-fifths as long as wing, very stout. 



Plumage and coloration. — Suborbital and postorbital regions naked; 

 eyelashes rather strongly developed; no bristly points to feathers 

 about base of bill; a conspicuous occipital erectile crest, of rather 

 broad, round-tipped, somewhat stiffened feathers, the longest about 

 equal to the bill in length; feathers of foreneck and chest somewhat 

 elongated but broad and with sub truncate tip, forming an erectile 



