10 BULLETIN- 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus COCCYZUS Vieillot. 



Coccyzus Vieillot, Analyse, 1816, 28. {Type, Coucou de la Caroline Buffon= 



Cuculus americanus Linnaeus.) 

 Coccygus (emendation) Boie, Isis, 1826, 977. 



Cocajzon (emendation) Gloger, in Froriep's Notizen, xvi, 1827, 277. 

 Coccygon (emendation) Burmeister, Syst. Ueb. Th. Bras., ii, 1856, 264 (in 



synonymy of Coccygus) . 

 Cocq/sus (emendation?) Savi, Orn. Toscana, i, 1827, 153. 

 Coccygius (emendation) Nitzsch, PterylograpMa, 1840, 130. 

 Coccyx'^ Morris, in N. Wood's Naturalist, ii, no. 9, June, 1837, 136. (Types, 



Cuculus americanus Linnteus and C. canorus Linnaeus.) 

 Cureus Boie, Isis, 1831, 541. (Type, Cuculus americanus Linnaeus.) 

 -Er^/i/irop/irj/s SwAiNSON, Classif. Birds, ii, 1837,322. (Type, Cuculus carolinensis 



Wilson=C americanus Linnaeus.) 

 Nesococcyx ^ Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., iv, Heft 1, 1862, 79, footnote. 



(Type, Coccyzus ferrugineus Gould.) 



Medium-sized or rather small Cuculinse (length about 240-390 mm.) 

 with bill decidedly shorter than head, compressed and decurved 

 terminally; tarsus about as long as culmen (from base), naked; 

 wing rather long and pointed, the longest primaries exceeding secon- 

 daries by nearly to much more than one-fourth the length of wing, the 

 tenth (outermost) primary httle if any shorter (usually longer) than 

 distal secondaries; tail much longer than wing, graduated for at least 

 one-third its length, and plumage without spots or streaks (mostly 

 plain oUve or grayish above, whitish or buffy beneath), the rectrices 

 (usually black) more or less broadly tipped with white. 



Bill decidedly shorter than head, about as wide as deep (sometimes 

 sUghtly wider) basally, rather abruptly compressed toward the dis- 

 tinctly decurved tip; culmen (from base) about as long as tarsus, 

 decurved from base, rounded (more narrowly so in O. erythrop- 

 thalmus), the mesorhinium broader, sometimes slightly flattened; 

 gonys nearly to quite twice as long as mandibular rami, more or less 

 distinctly concave except near the slightly prominent base, indistinctly 

 ridged; maxillary tomium without trace of subterminal notch. 

 Nostril open, longitudinally oval or elliptical-oval, its upper-posterior 

 edge sometimes shghtly produced. Wing moderate, rather pointed, 

 the longest primaries exceeding distal secondaries by nearly to much 

 more than one- third the length of wing; seventh to eighth primaries 

 longest, ninth equal to or longer than fifth, tenth (outermost) little if 

 any shorter (usually longer) than distal secondaries. Tail much 

 longer than wing (nearly to slightly more than one and one-fourth 

 times as long), graduated for at least one- third its length, the rectrices 

 rather narrow. Tarsus equal to middle toe with claw (C. erythrop- 

 thalmus, C. rnelacoryphus) or longer (other species), only a small 

 part of the extreme upper portion feathered. 



o KOKKu^, a cuckoo. 



b Von v^aoc, Insel und kokku? Kuckuk. (Cabanis and Heine.) 



