365 



THE YELLOW-BILLED AMERICAN CUCKOO. 



Coccyzus Americanus, Linn, (sp.) 

 Cuculus „ „ 

 cinerosus, Temm.* 



Has twice been procured in Ireland. 



The first notice of the occurrence of this species in the British 

 Islands, and indeed in the Eastern hemisphere, is due to Mr. R. 

 Ball of Dublin, who contributed a note upon the subject to the 

 first number of the Field Naturalist's Magazine. He states, that 

 when at Youghal (co. Cork) in 1825, the butler of a neighbouring 

 gentleman brought him a specimen of this bird a few minutes 

 after its being shot, and when still warm and bleeding. In the 

 same communication, dated from Dublin Castle, October 20th, 

 1832, a second example is mentioned as having been recently killed 

 near Bray, a few miles from Dubbn. About the same period 

 ("autumn, 1832") one was shot on the estate of Lord Cawdor, 

 in Wales. Mr. Yarrell received a communication respecting the 

 occurrence of another in Cornwall, but no date is given. (Br. 

 Birds, vol. ii. p. 190.) These are, I believe, all the recorded in- 

 stances of the species having been met with in the British Islands. 

 Foreign ornithological works published down to 1845, do not 

 contain any notice of its occurrence on the European continent. 



The specimen obtained near Bray was shown to me by Mr. 

 Glennon, bird-preserver, Dublin, and I agree with Mr. Ball in 

 considering it identical in species with his own. This was 

 entrusted to me when about to visit London in the spring of 1835, 

 and on comparing it with the specimen presented by Lord 

 Cawdor to the British Museum, I found them to be of the same 

 species. Before leaving home, I had purchased in Belfast a yellow- 

 billed American cuckoo from a person who shot it at Long 

 Island (United States), and at a meeting of the Zoological Society 



* See Temminck's Manuel, part 3, p. 277, for remarks both on the generic and 

 specific names. 



