343 



THE ANIMALS OF THE UNITED STATES 



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other members of this group as well as the humming - birds are chiefly 

 characteristic of tropical America. One humming-bird (Ckcatura pelasgia) in- 

 habits, however, the eastern United States. The most noteworthy nightjar is 

 perhaps the piramidig (CJtordiles virginianus), which ranges as far south as 

 Brazil. The American kingfishers are mostly tropical. Among the woodpeckers 

 the so-called flicker (Golaptes auratus) cannot be passed over without mention, 

 this bird being a resident in the central and southern parts of the United States, 



but also breeding in the far north. 

 It feeds chiefly on ants, and is not 

 so confined to forests as other wood- 

 peckers, making long journeys in 

 search of food through treeless 

 districts. In the west it is replaced 

 by the red - winged species (0. 

 mexicanus), with which it is con- 

 nected through an intermediate form 

 (possibly a hybrid) inhabiting the 

 central States. The so-called ivory- 

 bill (Campophilus principalis), a 

 black woodpecker larger than the 

 European species, now limited to 

 the southern States, some fifty 

 years ago ranged much farther 

 north. 



The two species 

 of rain-cuckoos differ 

 from the cuckoos of the Old World 

 by building their own nests instead 

 of depositing their eggs in the 

 nurseries of other birds. Of these 

 the yellow-bellied Coccyzus ameri- 

 canus ranges as far south as lower 

 Brazil, although the black-bellied 

 C. erythrophthalmus has a more 

 northerly distribution, appearing 

 during the summer even in 

 Labrador. 



The Carolina par- 

 rot (Conuropsis caro- 

 linensis) alone represents a group 

 otherwise restricted to Central and 

 South America. In the typical conures (Comtrus) the fourth primary feather 

 of the wing is attenuated and the nostrils are exposed ; in the Carolina parrot 

 the corresponding feather is not narrowed and the nostrils are concealed among 

 the feathers covering the cere. Formerly this parrot had a more northern 

 range than any other, extending to Iowa, the great lakes, and New York, but 



Carolina Parrot. 



THE PIPIIU. 



