CUCKOW 125 
This species of Cuckow, easily distinguishable by its large size, long 
crest, and the primrose tinge of its throat, has more than once 
made its appear- 
ance as a straggler 
in the British Isles. 
Equally parasitic 
are many other 
Cuckows, belong- 
ing chiefly to 
genera which have 
been more or less 
clearly defined as 
Cacomantis, Chryso- a, CucuLus ; 6, OxyLopHus; ¢c, CHALCITES ; d, e, ZANCLOSTOMA, 
cocey, Eu dynamis, J, Praya; g, Cenrropus., (After Swainson.) 
Oxylophus, Phanicophaes, Polyphasia, Surniculus, and Zanclostoma, and 
inhabiting parts of the Ethiopian, Indian, and Australian Regions ;1 
but there are certain aberrant forms of 
Old-World Cuckows which unques- 
tionably do not shirk parental responsi- 
bilities. Among these especially are 
the birds placed in or allied to the 
genera Centropus (COUCAL) and Cowa— 
the latter bearing no English name, 
and limited to the island of Madagascar. 
These build a nest, not perhaps in a 
highly-finished style of architecture, 
but one that serves its end.? 
Respecting the Cuckows of America, the evidence, though it 
has been impugned, is nearly enough to clear them from the 
calumny which attaches to so many of their brethren of the Old 
World. There are two species very well known in parts of the 
United States Ty 
and some of \( Liisi. 
the West-Indian 
Islands, Coceyzus 
americanus and 
C. erythrophthal- 
mus, and each 
of them has PH@NICOPHAES. SAUROTHERA. DasyLopnus. (After Swainson.) 
Cova. (After Swainson.) 
occasionally visited Europe. They both build nests—remarkably 
small structures when compared with those of other birds of their 
size—and faithfully incubate their delicate sea-green eggs. In the 
south-western States of the Union and thence into Central America 
1 Rvidence tends to shew that the same is to be said of the curious CHANNEL- 
BILL, Scythrops nove-hollandix, but absolute proof seems to be wanting. 
2 See Grandidier and Milne-Edwards Oiseaux de Madagascar (p. 140). 
