CHAPTER VI 



NEOENITHES CAEINATAE COXTIXUED 



BRIGADE II LEGION II (CORACIOMORPHAE). ORDERS : CUCULI- 



FORMES CORACIIFORMES 



Order XII. CUCULIFORMES. 



The Order Ciiculiformes commences the last great division of 

 Carinate Birds. It contains the Sub-Orders CucuLi and Psittaci ; 

 the former consisting of the Families Cuculidac, or Cuckoos, and 

 M'UsopJiagidae, or Plantain-eaters ; the latter of the Psittacidae, or 

 Parrots, Parrakeets, Macaws, and Cockatoos, and the Triclioglossidae, 

 or Lory group. Zygodactylous feet (p. 10) are characteristic of 

 the Order, while further structural details are to be found below. 

 Dr. Gadow confirms the close connexion of the two Sub-Orders.^ 



Fam. I. Cuculidae. Here we may accept, in default of full 

 anatomical investigation, the Sub-families of Captain Shelley,^ 

 namely, (1) Cuculinae, (2) Centro;podinae, (3) Phaenicojihainac , 

 (4) Neomorphinae, (5) Diplopterinae, and (6) Crotophaginae. 



The bill is generally long and curved, being strongly arched 

 in Hyetornis, Piaya, Taccocua, and Zanclostomus ; it is straight 

 in Saurothera and Rhinortha, abnormally large in Bhamplio- 

 mantis and Scythrops, and has the maxilla compressed into a 

 thin elevated plate in Crotophaga. The scutellated metatarsi 

 are commonly stout, and are especially long in the cursorial 

 genera Coua and Geococcyx ; in Centropus the hallux terminates 

 in an elongated spur-like claw. The wings are long and straight 

 in the Cuculinae, Diplopterinae, and Crotophaginae, short and 

 curved elsewhere ; the primaries numbering ten, and the second- 

 aries usually nine or ten, but thirteen in Scythropis ; in the 

 Neomorphinae the quills are about equal in extent. The rounded 



1 Bronn's Thier-Reich, Aves, Syst. Thcll, 1893, pp. 212-223. 

 ' Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xix. 1891, pp. 209-210 



