COCCYZUS. ggg 
Genus COCCYZUS. 
The American Cuckoos were included by Linnzeus in his genus Cuculus ; 
but in 1816 Vieillot, in his ‘ Analyse d’une nouvelle Ornithologie Hlémen- 
taire’ (p. 28), removed them into a separate genus under the name of 
Coccyzus, designating the Yellow-billed Cuckoo as the type. 
The American Cuckoos are distinguished by their rounded wings and 
by having only ten feathers in the tail. 
There are between twenty and thirty species in this genus, confined to 
the southern portions of the Nearctic and the northern portions of the 
Neotropical Region. Two species are accidental visitors to Europe, both 
of which are said to have visited our islands. 
The Cuckoos comprised in this genus frequent well-wooded districts, 
especially orchards and groves, preference being shown for low ground and 
swampy places. Their flight is moderately quick and powerful, and their 
notes are loud and guttural. Their food consists almost exclusively of 
insects and larve. Unlike the birds in the preceding genus, these 
Cuckoos build a nest and hatch and rear their own young. ‘The nests are 
placed in trees and large bushes, and made of twigs, roots, strips of bark, 
moss, grass, &c., and the eggs are unspotted green of different shades. 
Sometimes they will deposit an egg in the nest of another species. They 
are very much attached to their offspring, and become very noisy when 
their nests are menaced. 
