36 CUCULIDyE. 



(( Several were taken in open bushy places, and many others were 

 heard. It is a plain but attractive Cuckoo with a few-feathered crest, 

 and long soft flowing upper tail-coverts. The note is very clear and 

 penetrating, sounding much like the word ' Crispin ' slowly uttered, and 

 with the accent on the last syllable. The birds are very shy, and I 

 followed one for nearly an hour before I saw it at all, and nearly twice 

 that time before any chance of a shot was offered. There is some 

 peculiarity in the note which makes it impossible to tell whether the 

 bird is in front of or behind you even when the note itself is dis- 

 tinctly heard. I know nothing of nest or eggs." 



From personal observation I can say nothing about this species, as I 

 never visited the district where it is found ; but with the fame- of the 

 Crispin I have always been familiar, for concerning this Cuckoo the 

 Argentine peasants have a very pretty legend. It is told that two 

 children of a woodcutter, who lived in a lonely spot on the Uruguay, 

 lost themselves in the woods a little boy named Crispin and his sister. 

 They subsisted on wild fruit, wandering from place to place, and slept 

 at night on a bed of dry grass and leaves. One morning the little girl 

 awoke to discover that her brother had disappeared from her side. She 

 sprung up and ran through the woods to seek for him, but never found 

 him ; but day after day continued wandering in the thickets calling 

 " Crispin, Crispin," until at length she was changed into a little bird, 

 which still flies through the woods on its never-ending quest, following 

 every stranger that enters them, calling after him " Crispin, Crispin," if 

 by chance it should be her lost brother. 



270, PIAYA CAYANA (Linn.). 

 (CHESTNUT CUCKOO.) 



Piaya cayana, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 108 ; Salvin, Ibis, 1880, p. 361 (Tucu- 

 man) ; White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 619 (Misiones). 



Description. Above deep chestnut-red : beneath pale grey, passing into 

 blackish on the crissum; throat and neck pale chestnut-brown; tail-feathers 

 beneath brown, more or less blackish, and, except the middle pair which are like 

 the back, broadly tipped with white : whole length 16-0 inches, wing 5-5, tail 

 10'5. Female similar. 



Hob. Central and South America. 



This is a widely- spread form of Cuckoo in Central and South 

 America, and reaches the northern territories of the Argentine Republic, 

 having been obtained by Durnford near Tucuman, and by White in 

 Misiones. The whole bird is about 18 inches long, and the tail very 



