COCCYZUS.] AVES INSESSORES. 155 



tarsus ten lines and a half; of the tail six inches ten lines ; from the 

 carpus to the end of the wing eight inches nine lines : breadth, wings 

 extended, twenty-three inches four lines. 



DESCRIPT. (Adult.) Head, and all the upper parts, bluish ash; 

 throat, fore part of the neck, and breast, the same, but rather paler ; 

 belly, thighs, and under tail-coverts, whitish, with transverse streaks 

 of dusky brown : quills dusky, barred on the inner webs with oval white 

 spots : tail black, with a series of small white spots on the shafts of the 

 feathers; the tips also white: bill dusky, yellowish at the base and 

 edges ; inside of the mouth, and orbits, orange-yellow : irides and feet 

 yellow. (Young of the year.) All the upper parts of a deep clove- 

 brown, with transverse bars of pale ferruginous brown, the feathers 

 tipped with whitish ; a patch of white on the occiput : throat, and under 

 parts, yellowish white, with transverse black bars: quills spotted with 

 reddish brown on their inner webs: tail with alternate oblique bars of 

 red and brown, the brown bar nearest the extremity broader than the 

 others ; the shafts of the feathers with a series of white spots ; the 

 tips white: irides liver-brown. (Egg.) White, speckled all over with 

 ash-brown ; or reddish white, speckled with nutmeg-brown : long. diam. 

 eleven lines ; trans, diam. eight lines and a half. 



Visits this country early in April, and leaves it again about the be- 

 ginning of July ; the young of the year remaining till September. Feeds 

 principally on caterpillars, and other insects. Makes no nest, but com- 

 mits its eggs (five or six in number) to the nests of other birds, generally 

 selecting those of the Hedge Sparrow, Wagtail, or Tit-Pipit. 



GEN. 45. COCCYZUS, Vieill. 

 127. C. Americanus, Bonap. (Carolina Cuckow.) 



Cuculus Americanus, Linn. .Syst. Nat. torn. i. p. 170. Lath. 2nd. 

 Orn. vol. i. p. 219. Cue. Carolinensis, Wils. Amer. Orn. vol. iv. 

 p. 13. pi. 28. f. 1. Cue. cinerosus, Temm, Man.cTOrn. torn. in. p. 277. 

 Carolina Cuckow, Lath. Syn. vol. n. p. 537. 



DIMENS. Entire length eleven inches four lines: length of the bill 

 (from the forehead) one inch, (from the gape) one inch four lines ; of the 

 tarsus eleven lines and a half; of the tail five inches seven lines; from 

 the carpus to the end of the wing five inches nine lines. 



DESCRIPT. All the upper parts of the head and body, wings, and two 

 middle tail-feathers, cinereous brown, with a slight tinge of olivaceous ; 

 the other tail-feathers black, with a broad white space at the extremity 

 of each of the three outermost; the fourth just tipped with white; 

 primaries and wing-coverts bright rufous : throat, sides of the neck, and 

 all the under parts white : upper mandible black, edged with yellow at 

 the base ; lower mandible yellow, tipped with black : legs black : tarsi 

 long, naked. (Egg.) " Of a uniform greenish blue colour". WILS. 



The above description of this species is taken from a specimen in the 

 collection of the Zoological Society, which was killed in the preserves of 

 Lord Cawdor in Wales, in the autumn of 1832. Three other individuals 

 have occurred in this country, two in Ireland, and one in Cornwall. In- 

 habits the northern parts of America. Habits said to be essentially 

 different from those of the Common Cuckow. Constructs its own nest, 

 and rears its own young. Eggs three or four in number. Food, according 

 to Wilson, principally caterpillars. 



