cue ULID.^ — C UC ULIN/E : TREE C UCKOOS. 



607 



is believed to last 18 days for each egg. The development of the chicks is rapid; perfectly 

 fresh eggs and newly-hatched young may be found together; and by the time the last young 

 are breaking the shell the others may be graded up to half the size of the adult. The birds 

 are sometimes domesticated, making amusing pets. They are singular birds — cuckoos com- 

 pounded of a chicken and a Magpie ! 



Subfamily CUCULIN>C: Tree Cuckoos. 



Fig. 418. — American TreeCuckoo (Coccysuiam^r/Vu/iuii 

 reduced. (From Teuney, after Wilson.) 



Syrinx tracheobronchial. Myological formula A X Y (no accessory femorocaudal). Ven- 

 tral pteryla unbranclied on either side, but more or less extensively divided by a median space 

 into right and left halves, this division ex- 

 tending throughout in sundry American 

 genera, but not on the neck in Old World 

 genera like CiicuIhs. Tail invariably of 10 

 soft feathers, usually rounded or graduated, 

 rarely square or forked, and more or less 

 nearly equalling the wings in length. Wings 

 long and flat, not hugging the body closely 

 when fohled, and the point of the primaries 

 extending decidedly beyond the end of the 

 longest secondaries in the folded wing. Feet 

 moderate, in adaptation to arboreal life ; no 

 peculiarity of the hind claws. These char- 

 acters easily serve to distinguish the present 

 subfamily from the two foregoing; but the 

 full extent of their applicability, and therefore the content of the subfamily Citcxlimc, remains 

 uncertain for lack of evidence in the cases of several genera. Regarding external characters 

 alone, there are 17 genera which have the long flat wing, all but two of them exclusively Old 

 World, and one of these two (Cuculiis itself) only a straggler in America. It is probable that 

 a subfamily Coccyzince can be maintained for the American Tree Cuckoos, as distinguished 

 from those of the Old World, as given in former editions of the Key and in the A. 0. U. Supjtl. 

 List, Auk, Jan. 1899, p. 110. 



COC'CYZUS. (Gr. kokkvC<o, kokkuzo, to cry "cuckoo!" k6kkv$, kokkux, a cuckoo.) Amer- 

 ican Tree Cuckoos. Rain-crows. Head not crested ; all the feathers soft. Bill about 

 equalling or rather shorter than head, stout at base, then much compressed, curved throughout, 

 tapering to a rather acute tip; nostrils basal, inferior, exposed, elliptical. Wings jiointed, but 

 not longer than tail; inner quills not folding over much of tlie primaries; 3d and 4th primaries 

 longest, 2d and 5th shorter, 1st much shorter still. Tail of soft rather tapering featliers, with 

 very obtuse ends; much graduated. Tibial feathers flowing; tarsi naked, shorter than middle 

 toe. Our species are strictly arboricolc l)ir(ls of lithe form, blended plumage and subdued colors ; 

 the head is not crested ; the tibial feathers are full, as in a hawk ; the sexes are alike, and the 

 young scarcely difl"erent; the ujiper parts are uniform satiny olive-gray, or '' quaker-color," 

 with bronzy reflections. Lay numerous plain greenish elliptical eggs, in a rude nest of twigs 

 saddled on a branch or in a fork. Though not habitually parasitic, they may slip an egg in 

 other birds' nests, or in each other's, but they are rarely guilty of ogg-sucking. Oviposition 

 is tardy or irregular; the nests usually contain eggs in diff"erent stages of development, or eggs 

 anil young together. They are well-known inhabitants of our streets ami ])arks as well as of 

 woodland, noted for their loud, jerUy cries, which they are supposed to utter most frequently 

 in falling weather, whence their popular name, '' Rain-crow." Miirratory, insectivorous, and 



