608 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — PIC ARIAi— COCCYGES. 



frugivorous. They include in their insect fare enormous numbers of canlier-worms and other 

 caterpillars of the most noxious kinds, and are thus highly beneficial birds to man. 



Analysis oj Species and Subspecies. 



Bill black and bluish. 



White below. Wings with little or no cinnamon. Tail-feathers not broadly white-ended . erythrophthalmus 

 Bill black and yellow. Tail-feathers broadly white-ended. 



White below. Ears not dusky. Wings extensively cinnamon. 



Eastern form americanus 



Western form occidenlalis 



Tawny below. Ears dusky. 



Tawny tint uniform minor 



Tawny tint bleaching anteriorly maynardi 



C. erythrophthal'mus. (Gr. tpvdpos, eruthros, reddish ; dfjiOaXfios, ophthalmos, eye. Fig. 

 420.) Black-billed Cuckoo. Rain-crow. Adult <J 9 ^ Bill blackish except occasionally 



Fig. 41'J. — YellDu-l.ilU'.l Cuckoo, }, nat. size. {From Brehm.) 



a trace of yellowish, usually bluish at base below. Above, satiny olive-gray. Below, pure 

 white, sometimes with a faint tawny tinge on the fore-parts. Wings with little or no rufous. 

 Lateral tail-feathers not contrasting with the central, their tips for a short distance blackish, 

 then obscurely white ; no bold contrast of black with large white spaces. Bare circumocular 

 space livid ; edges of eyelids red. Length 11.00-12.00 ; extent about 15.50; wing 5.00-5.50; 

 tail 6.00-6.50; bill under an inch. Very young birds have the feathers of upper parts skirted 

 with whitish ; bill and feet pale bluish. Eastern U. S. and Canada, west to the Rocky Mts., 

 N. to Labrador, common ; rather more northerly than americanus, being the commoner spe- 

 cies in New England; winters sparingly in Florida and on the Gulf Coast, but known to reach 

 South America ; accidental in Europe ; migrates in the U. S. mainly in Apr., May, Sept., Oct., 



