6io 



COLLEGE ZOOLOGY 



for the passenger-pigeon. It makes a flimsy nest of a few twigs 

 and lays two white eggs. The young are naked when born, 

 and are fed by regurgitation. 



Order 19. Cuculiformes. — Cuckoo-like Birds. — This order 

 contains the cuckoos, plantain-eaters, lories, nestors, cockatoos, 

 and parrots. The cuckoos (Family Cuculid^:) are mostly 

 tropical birds. The majority of them do not build a nest, but lay 

 their eggs in the nests of other birds. This is not true, however, 

 of the North American species. The black-billed and yellow- 

 billed cuckoos (Fig. 499) of this country are long, slender birds 



of solitary habits and with 

 ,1 ^m 



the peculiar vocal powers 

 which have given them 

 their common name. 



The American species 

 of parrots, about one 

 hundred and fifty in 

 number, are included in 

 the family Psittacid^e. 

 Only one species, the 

 Carolina paroquet, Conu- 

 ropsis carolinensis, occurs 

 in the United States. 

 Parrots and paroquets live in forests and feed on fruits and 

 seeds. They have shrill voices, but can, with few exceptions, be 

 taught to talk. The African parrot, Psittacus erythacus, learns 

 to talk most readily. 



Order 20. Coraciiformes. — Roller-like Birds. — The birds 

 placed in this order may be grouped into seven suborders, and 

 about eighteen families. They include the rollers, motmots, 

 kingfishes, bee-eaters, hornbills, hoopoes, oil-birds, frogmouths, 

 goatsuckers, humming-birds, swifts, colies, trogons, puff-birds, 

 jacamars, barbets, honey-guides, toucans, woodpeckers, wry- 

 necks, and owls. 



There are about two hundred species and subspecies of king- 



Fig. 499. — Yellow-billed cuckoo, Coccysus 

 americanus. (From Judd, Bui. 17, Bur. 

 Biol. Survey, U. S» Dep't Agric.) 



