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THE YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 83 
Famity CUCULIDA. Tue Cucxkoos. 
COCCYGUS, ViEILLor. 
Coccyzus, Vieillot. Analyse (1816). 
LErythrophrys, Swainson. Class. Birds, II. (1887), 822. 
Head without crest; feathers about base of bill soft; bill nearly as long as the 
head, decurved, slender, and attenuated towards the end; nostrils linear; wings 
lengthened, reaching the middle of the tail; the tertials short; tail of ten graduated 
feathers; feet weak; tarsi shorter than the middle toe. 
The species of Coccygus are readily distinguished from those of Geococcyx by 
their arborial habits, confining themselves mainly to trees, instead of living habitu- 
ally on the ground. The plumage is soft, fine, and compact. 
The American cuckoos differ from the European cuckoos (Cuculus) by having 
lengthened naked tarsi, instead of very short feathered ones; the nostrils are 
elongated, too, instead of rounded. 
COCCYGUS AMERICANUS. — Bonaparte. 
The Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 
Cuculus Americanus, Linneus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766). 
Coccyzus Americanus, Audubon. Orn. Biog., I. (1832). Bonap. Syn., 42. 
Cuculus Carolinensis. Wilson, 267. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Upper mandible, and tip of lower black; rest of lower mandible, and cutting 
edges of the upper yellow; upper parts of a metallic greenish-olive, slightly tinged 
with ash towards the bill; beneath white; tail feathers (except the median, which 
are like the back) black, tipped with white for about an inch on the outer feathers, 
the external one with the outer edge almost entirely white; quills orange-cinnamon; 
the terminal portion and a gloss on the outer webs olive; iris brown. 
Length, twelve inches; wing, five and ninety-five one-hundredths; tail, six and 
thirty-five one-hundredths. 
HIS bird is very irregularly distributed through New 
England as a summer visitor. A. E. Verrill, in his 
catalogue of birds found at Norway, Me., says that “it 
is not common as a summer visitor.” George A. Board- 
man writes me, that, near Calais, Me., it is “ extremely 
rare.” J. A. Allen, in his paper on Springfield birds 
(before referred to), calls it “extremely rare.” Dr. Wood 
says it is “ very rare”’ at East-Windsor Hill, Conn., where 
