35^ CUCULIFORMES 



CHAP. 



and Polynesia, the black males are barely distinguishable, but 

 the females vary, and are black, brown, rufous, and white. E. 

 honor ata, the noisy Indian Koel, has a loud melodious or hoarse 

 whistling note, supposed to portend rain ; it feeds on fruit, and 

 lays from one to four greenish eggs with brown and grey blotches 

 in nests of Crows. H. tnelanorhyncha is the " foreteller at night " 

 of Celebes.^ The extraordinary Scythrops novae hollandiae, or 

 Channel-bill, of Australia, Papuasia, and the Moluccas, has a grey 

 head, brownish back, and whitish under parts with indistinct dusky 

 bars, the tail exhibiting a subterminal blackish and a terminal 

 white band. The large maxilla has two lateral grooves, the bare 

 lores and orbits are scarlet. This big bird flies like a Hawk, and 

 is possibly parasitic ; while eggs, taken from the oviduct, are white 

 with pinkish-brown spots. The weird cry or shriek is syllabled 

 " krok," and the flocks feed on fruits and insects. 



Coccyzus americanus, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo of America, 

 has occurred in Britain, and ranges from the Great Plains, Canada, 

 and New Brunswick to Argentina ; it is an arboreal species, pair- 

 ing and building apparently twice a year a slight flat nest of 

 twigs, grass, and moss, lined with leaves. It lays from three to 

 five light greenish eggs, and the hen feigns lameness when danger 

 threatens the young. C. occidentalis is a more western form. 

 C. erythrophtlialmus, the American Black-billed Cuckoo, has been 

 killed in Ireland and Italy. The coloration in the eight members 

 of this genus is brownish-grey, relieved by rufous, the under parts 

 being buff or white. 



Sub-fam. 2. Centropodinae. This group comprises only the 

 thirty or more large Coucals {Centropus) of the Ethiopian Eegion, 

 Egypt, Madagascar, India, and the countries thence to China, 

 Papuasia, and Australia. C. sinensis, the Crow-Pheasant, extend- 

 ing from India and Ceylon to China, is black with purple and 

 green reflexions, the mantle being chestnut ; C. unirufus of the 

 Philippines is entirely rufous. They are strong -billed, long- 

 legged birds with terrestrial tendencies, noisy yet often shy, which 

 fly heavily, run, climb, leap, or glide with up-turned tail about 

 the trees in forests and jungles, and utter a mellow " hoo-too " or 

 a chuckle. The food consists of insects and their larvae, molluscs, 

 reptiles, small mammals, and nestling birds. They make a large 

 globular nest of twigs and leaves, or even of rushes, grass, and rags, 

 ^ For superstitions connected with Celebes Cuckoos, see Meyer, Ibis, 1879, pp. 67-70. 



