BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO 23 



beak is black, and the irides blood-red, which 

 contrasts well with the blue-grey of the head, giving 

 the bird a bold and striking appearance. 



This species is not common, but it is, I believe, 

 slowly extending its range southwards, as within the 

 last few years it has become much more common 

 than formerly. Like other Cuckoos, it is retiring in 

 its habits, concealing itself in the dense foliage, and 

 it cannot be attracted by an imitation of its call, an 

 expedient which never fails with the Coucou, Its 

 language has not that deep mysterious or monkish 

 quality, as it has been aptly called, of other Coccyzi, 

 Its usual song or call, which it repeats at short 

 intervals all day long during the love-season, re- 

 sembles the song of our little Dove {Columbula picm)^ 

 and is composed of several long monotonous notes, 

 loud, rather musical, but not at all plaintive. It 

 also has a loud harsh cry, which one finds it hard 

 to believe to be the voice of a Cuckoo, as in character 

 it is more like the scream of a Dendrocolaptine species. 



Of the thirty species of Cuckoos inhabiting South 

 America eight are found in Argentina. Four of the 

 five species described above were known to me ; the 

 remaining three did not range so far south as Buenos 

 Ayres — ** my parish of Selbome," as I have ventured 

 to call it in the Naturalist in La Plata — ^but they are 

 such interesting birds that I cannot resist the tempta- 

 tion of giving a brief account of their habits in this 

 place. 



The Ani, Crotophaga ani, is about the size of our 

 M^pie, and is one of the strangest of this strange 



