390 BRITISH BIRDS. 



COCCYZUS AMERICANUS. 



YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 



(PLATE 68.) 



Cuculus dominicensis, Briss. Orn. iv. p. 110, pi. ix. fig. 2 (1760). 



Cnculus carolinensis, Briss. Orn. iv. p. 112 (1760). 



Cuculus americanus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 170 (1760) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



(Wilson), (Audubon), (Baird), (Sclater), (Dresser), (Newton), &c. 

 Cuculus dominicus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 170 (1766). 

 Coccyzus pyropterus, Vieitt. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. viii. p. 270 (1817). 

 Coccyzus ainericanus (Linn.), Bonap. Obs. Wilson's Orn. no. 47 (1825). 

 Cureus americanus (Linn.), Boie, Isis, 1831, p. 541. 

 Cuculus cinerosus, Temm. Man. d'Orn. iii. p. 277 (1835). 

 Erythrophrys carolinensis (Briss.), Swains. Classif. B. ii. p. 322 (1837). 

 Erythrophrys americanus (Linn.), Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur. Sf N. Amer. p. 40 



(1838). 



Coccystes americanus (Linn.), Keys. u. Bias. Wirb. Eur. p. 34 (1840). 

 Coccyzus dominicus (Linn.), Baird, Proc. Ac. Phil. 1863, p. 64. 

 Coccyzus bairdi, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 120. 

 Coccygus julieni, Laior. Ann. Lye. N. T. viii. p. 42 (1864). 



The claim of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo to be included in this volume is 

 supported by the record of half a dozen British-killed examples. All of 

 these have occurred near the coast in the west of our islands, and all, 

 so far as is known, at the season of autumnal migration. These facts, 

 confirmed by the occasional appearance of the birds on the Bermudas, are 

 very strong evidence that the Yellow-billed Cuckoo has occasionally suc- 

 ceeded in crossing the Atlantic from America. The first specimen was 

 shot at Youghal, co. Cork, in the autumn of 1825, and a second at Old 

 Connaught, near Bray, co. Dublin; both of these specimens were recorded 

 by Mr. R. Ball, of Dublin (' Field Naturalist's Magazine/ 1832, p. 6). 

 The third specimen was shot near Stackpole Court, in Pembrokeshire, in 

 the autumn of 1832 (Tracy, 'Zoologist/ 1851, p. 3046). The occurrence 

 of a fourth specimen in Cornwall was communicated by Yarrell to Tem- 

 minck, but the date of its capture appears to be unknown (Temminck, Man. 

 d'Orn. iii. p. 279; and Jenyns, Man. Brit. Vert. An. p. 155). A fifth 

 specimen was found dead in a wood at Wallog, near Aberystwith, on the 

 26th of October, 1870 (Dresser, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 299 ; and Newton, 

 ed. Yarr. Brit. B. ii. p. 415) ; whilst a sixth is said to have been picked up 

 dead near the lighthouse on Lundy Island in October 1874 (Newton, ed. 

 Yarr. Brit. B. ii. p. 415) . Two other examples have occurred in Europe, 

 one in Belgium on the 22nd of October, 1874 (Dubois, Bull. Ac. Roy. 



