CUCKOOS TO URA COES. 35 1 



Many genera of the Guculince have a good deal of metallic colour about 

 them, and the golden cuckoos of Africa and India, with their emerald-green 

 and purple plumage, are among the most beautiful of all birds. In America, 

 the black-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus erythrophthalmus) and the yellow-billed 

 cuckoo (G. americanus) build their own nests, and are most affectionate 

 parents. 



In the Centropodince, the hind-claw is straight, and like that of a lark. 

 There is but one genus, Centropus, which is distributed over the Ethiopian, 

 Indian, and Australian regions, and no less than thirty-two 

 species are known. They have a hooting note, like "whoot- The Lark-heeled 

 w/ioo," and on the Gold Coast the species is known as Cuckoos. 

 the "Scotchman." In India, Mr. Hume says that 0. sinensis Sub-family 

 follows up the hooting note by " kurook-kurook-kurook- Centropodince. 

 kurook," after an interval of a few seconds. It makes a 

 nest in thick thorny bushes or trees, about six inches in height and twelve 

 inches across, composed of grass or twigs, and in the form of an oblate 

 spheroid ; it is too small for the size of the bird, so that the tail of the latter 

 is generally seen sticking out. 



The bush cuckoos have a rounded and concave wing like the lark-heels, but 

 want the spur-like claw of the latter birds. In this sub-family are found 

 the rain - cuckoos (Saurothera, Hyetornis, Piaya, etc.) of 

 America, the steel-blue cuckoos (Ceuthmochares) of The Bush 

 Africa, the bush-cuckoos (Phcenicophaes, Rhinocbccyx, etc.) Cuckoos. 

 of the Indian region, and the couas of Madagascar. The Sub-family 

 members of this sub-family build their own nests and lay Phcenicophceince. 

 white eggs. They are mostly bush-haunting birds and 

 thread their way through the jungle and the trees with great facility. 



The most round-winged of the bush-cuckoos are the members of the genus 

 Neomorphus, which represents the sub-family Neomorphince. Only three 

 other genera are contained in the latter, Carpococeyx, with the pheasant- 

 cuckoo of Borneo (G. radiatus), and the road-runners (Geococeyx and Moro- 

 coceyx} of the New World. The species of Neomorphus are all neo-tropical, 

 being found in the southern countries of Central America and the tropical 

 portions of South America. Five species are known, all of which are very 

 rare, and nothing has been recorded of their habits. 



The Diplopterince, which constitute the fifth sub-family of cuckoos, are 

 entirely American and are remarkable for the extreme length of their upper 

 tail-coverts, and the sixth sub-family, the Grotophagince, is also American. 

 In the latter there are only eight tail-feathers, instead of ten, and some of 

 the Savana cuckoos (Grotophaga) have very curious habits, several females 

 apparently laying in the same nest, so that sometimes as many as twenty eggs 

 have been found in one nest. The egg, too, is very peculiar in the Croto- 

 phagince, as it appears at first sight to be blue covered with white scratchings 

 and marblings, but the true colour of the egg is white, and the blue is only 

 an overlying colour, which gets rubbed and scratched off through contact with 

 the lining of the nest. 



In appearance these birds are very different from cuckoos, and their semi- 

 zygodactyle foot has already been alluded to (p. 350). They 



are forest-birds, confined to Africa, where nearly thirty The Touracoes. 



species have been described. In ancient times they appear Family 



to have inhabited France, as fossil remains have been dis- Musophagidce. 

 covered in that country. Some of the species are crested 



