ORDER OF CUCKOOS, ETC. 



Order Coccyges 



EVERAL <:;rou])s of birds with little outward resemblance to one another 

 have been grouped in this order. There are three suborders, each with one 

 family. The first suborder, Cuciili, and family, Cuculida, contains the Cuckoos, 

 Anis, and Road-runners. The second, or Trogoncs, includes the Troj^ons, 

 but one species of which enters the United States. The third suborder is that 

 of the Kingfishers (Alcyones). 



CUCKOO FAMILY 



Order Coccyges; suborder Cuciili; family Cuculida' 



IRDS of the Cuckoo family are long-tailed, mostly arboreal, but sometimes 

 terrestrial and ground-scratching. The toes are arranged in pairs, two 

 pointing forward and two backward. There are eight to ten feathers in 

 the tail. The nostrils are exposed, and the bristles at the corners of the 

 mouth are either inconspicuous or missing. The bill is extremeh' variable 

 as to size and shape, but is always compressed and more or less decurv^ed 

 at the tip. 



The young are hatched naked and are cared for in the nest. The nest 

 (if any) is of ver>' rude construction. The eggs are extremely variable as 

 to coloration and number and are usually deposited at intervals so that eggs 

 and young are often found in the same nest at the same time. Many foreign 

 species are parasitic in their reproduction, laying their eggs in the nests of other birds, and 

 allowing their young to be reared by the foster parents, often at the sacrifice of the latter's 

 progeny, who are frequently unceremoniously crowded or thrown from the nest bv the 

 interloper. 



The Cuckoo family is a ver>' extensive group of nearly world-wide distribution, only 

 the colder regions, where their insect food is wanting, being without any representatives 

 of it. The group is much more numerously represented in the eastern than in the 

 western hemisphere, only eleven of the forty-six genera and forty-three of the two hundred 

 and two species enumerated in Sharpe's Hand-list of the Genera and Species of Birds being 

 American. All the American forms are peculiar, however, none of the genera being repre- 

 sented elsewhere and none being parasitic as is the common European bird. This family 

 includes : the group which bear the family name, Cuckoo, five species and subspecies of 

 which are found in the United States; the Road-runners or Ground Cuckoos; and the Anis. 

 As a rule the Cuckoos are birds of dull plumage, a more or less plain grayish, brown, 

 or partly rufous coloration prevailing; but there are exceptions in some of the Old World 

 genera. No American species of the group is remarkable for showy coloration. 



GROOVE-BILLED ANI 



Crotophaga sulcirostris Sii'ainson 



A. O. U. Numlier 384 



Other Names.— Tick Bird; Black Witch ; Jew Bird. Color. — Dull black, faintly glossed with violet on 



General Description. — LenRth. 12 to 14 inches. wing-coverts, wings, and middle tail-feathers, still more 



Plumage, black. Upper bill with several distinct curved faintly glossed with greenish on primaries and under 



grooves and ridges, parallel with curve of ridge. parts; feathers of head and neck rather broadly edged 



[125I 



