4-36 On the Natural History of the Cuculidce. 



wings, and circular nostrils, and whose habits are parasitic, will ar- 

 range themselves under one or other of the foregoing genera. Nor 

 are there wanting considerations, drawn from their analogical re- 

 semblances in other groups, which render it highly probable that 

 they serve to indicate a circular group. Erythrophrys, as the rasorial 

 type, resembles the rufous-winged scansorial creeper ; and as it is 

 by this group that the parasitic cuckoos lead immediately to those 

 which build nests ; so we have the external characters of Oxylo- 

 phus joined to the economy of Coccyzus. Chalcites, again, as repre- 

 senting the humming-birds, may be viewed as the tenuirostral type ; 

 while Eudynamys, with its large bill, and black glossy plumage, 

 will become the representative of the Toucans, and of the fissiros- 

 tral type. It may be questioned, indeed, whether Cuculus or Oxy- 

 lophits follows Eudynamys ; but I incline to the series in which they 

 are here placed, from the obvious affinity of Erythrophrys to Oxy- 

 lophus. 



Concentrating the foregoing remarks, we may state the essential 

 external characters of the sub-family I have now attempted to illus- 

 trate, in the following table of the 



Sub-family Cuculinaz. 

 Cuculus, Linn. 

 Bill broad at the base, compressed beyond, the upper mandible 

 obsoletely notched ; nostrils circular, with a tumid margin ; wings 

 long, pointed, the third quill longest, the second and fourth of equal 

 length ; feet slender, very short, tarsi feathered, posteriorly al- 

 most to the toes ; rump and upper tail-covers long, thick-set, and 

 rigid. Inhabits the old world ; parasitic. 



Type. — Cuculus canorus, Lin. 



OXYLOPHUS, Sw. 



Bill slender, considerably compressed nearly its whole length ; 

 upper mandible entire ; nostrils ovately round ; head crested ; wings 

 moderate, pointed, shorter than the tail-covers, the fourth quill long- 

 est ; tarsi moderate, naked ; upper tail-covers long, but not rigid. 

 Inhabits the old world ; parasitic. 



Type Coccyzus. Levaillanti, Sw. Zool. 111. ii. pi. 13. 



Erythrophrys, Spj, 

 Bill as in Oxylophus ; head not crested ; nostrils oval ; wings 

 lengthened, pointed, extending beyond the tail covers, the third 

 quill longest, the second much shorter than the fourth ; tarsi mo- 

 derate, naked. Inhabit the new world, and rear their own young. 

 Type Cuculus Carolinensis, Wilson, iv. 2*. f. 1. 



