402 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO. Coccyzus erythrophthal- 

 mus (Wilson). Length, 11-25 in. ; bill, 0-9 in. ; wing, 

 5*3 in. ; tarsus, 0*9 in. 



Hab. United States, throughout Central America to 

 Upper Amazon ; Cuba and Trinidad. 



One, Killead, co. Antrim, Sept. 25, 1871 : Lord Clermont, 

 ZooL, 1872, p. 3022. Recorded as C. americanns, 

 Blake Knox, torn, cit., p. 2943. I examined this speci- 

 men on the 28th May 1872, when it was exhibited at a 

 meeting of the Zoological Society; Proc. Zool. Soc, 

 1872, p. 661. 



Ohs. As compared with the European Cuckoo, 

 both this species and the last-named are not only 

 smaller in size and slighter in build, but present a 

 plainer appearance, having no colour on the breast, 

 which is dull white, and wanting the barred flanks 

 which are so conspicuous in our more familiar 

 bird. 



The present species differs from C. americanus 

 not merely in the colour of the bill, which has 

 suggested the distinctive appellation, but in the 

 almost entire absence of black in the tail and rufous 

 colour in the quill feathers, which have their inner 

 webs only basally tinged with buff. Unlike the 

 European Cuckoo, both of these species build a nest, 

 which is described as "a platform of small sticks, 

 with a few grasses or catkins, generally in low trees 

 or vine-covered bushes a few feet from the ground." 

 The eggs, three to five in number, are of a pale 

 greenish-blue. 



