1885.] MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE CUCKOOS. 1C9 



The genera wliich I have studied myself are the following : — 



Cuciifus. Eudynamis. 



Cacomantis. Phornicophaes. 



Piaya. Crotophaga. 



Saurofltera. Geococcyx. 



Coccyzus. Ceniropus. 



Diplopterus. Pyrrhocenior. 

 Guira. 



I have also been able to incorporate some deductions from the 

 MS. notes of my two predecessors upon Chrysococcyx and Coua. 



There remain therefore a considerable number of genera which I 

 have not been able to examine ; such an omission will doubtless take 

 away from the value of the scheme of classification proposed here ; 

 but in any case the facts recorded will, I trust, remain as facts and be 

 at least an assistance towards a proper classification even if they do 

 not indicate its main outlines. 



Mr. Sharpe, in a paper on the Cuckoos of the Ethiopian Region \ 

 distinguishes two subfamilies — (1) Cmcm//»oe, including only Cuculus 

 and Coccystes, and (2) Phcenicophaince, including Phcen.icophaes,Coua, 

 Centropus, &c. This division appears to me to be, so far as I have 

 been al)le to follow it by a study of the anatomical characters of the 

 several genera, a natural one. I have separated, as will be seen later, 

 Phcenicophaes and Eudyvmnis from the other genera belonging to 

 Mr. Sharpe's subfamily Phcenicophainse into a distinct subfamily, 

 for which I retain his name, including the other genera Centropus, 

 Coua, &c. in a separate subfamily which may be termed Centropodinae; 

 nevertheless there is a far closer agreement between the Phcenico- 

 phainse and Centropodinse than between either of these and the 

 Cuculinse. Mr. Sharpe further remarks that it is difficult to place 

 the American genus Neomorphus away from Phcenicophaes ; that it is 

 impossible to separate the American from the Old-World Cuckoos 

 I hope to be able to show in the j)resent paper. 



The structures which I have chiefly made use of for classificatory 

 purposes are, (1) the muscles of the thigh, (2) the syrinx, (3) the 

 pterylosis ; the variations exhiluted elsewhere do not appear to me 

 to be of sufficient importance to serve as a standard of classifi- 

 cation. 



It may, however, be worth while to record briefly some of the 

 differences that I have noticed in other structures besides the three 

 which I propose to describe more or less in detail. 



The gall-bladder is stated by Owen ^ to be wanting in almost all 

 the Cuculidae. This statement is by no means correct ; indeed the 

 gall-bladder appears to be very generally present and those cases 

 where it is absent are the exceptions ; it is present in Snurothera, 

 Coccyzus, Pyrrhocentor, and Cuculvs, but appears to be absent in 

 Crotophaga, and occasionally in Centropus : Coua according to Milne- 



1 P. Z. S. 187.3, p. 578. ^ Comp. Anat. vol. u. p. 177. 



