22 BIRDS OlgLA PLATA 
by the bird from the trees and not picked up from 
the ground. They are laid across each other to make 
a platform nest, but so small and flat is it that the 
eggs frequently fall out from it. That a bird should 
make no better preparation than this for the great 
business of propagation seems very wonderful. The 
eggs are three or four in number, elliptical in form, 
and of a dull sea-green colour. 
There are three more species in Argentina of the 
characteristic American genus Coccyzus; one of 
these which I discovered to be an Argentine species 
being the common Yellow-billed Cuckoo of North 
America, Coccyzus americanus. I met with it in 
plantations on the pampas, but always in the late 
summer or autumn months—February to April— 
and am therefore unable to say whether or not it 
breeds in that district. It may be that this Cuckoo, 
like some of the Sandpipers and other shore birds of 
North America, extends its annual migration south 
to the pampas and Patagonia. But it is hardly believ- 
able that any Cuckoo could make that journey. If 
not, one must suppose that this Cuckoo, like the 
Purple Martin, has two races, which may have their 
meeting-ground in the tropics; at all events both 
winter in the tropics, and to breed one flies north in 
May, the other south in September. 
Another interesting species is the Cuinereous 
Cuckoo, Coccyzus cinereus, of a nearly uniform 
ashy grey colour with black bill. This Cuckoo is 
smaller than the preceding species, and also differs 
in having a square tail and a more curved beak. The 
