534 CUCULID^, 



from Panama was in Seebohm's collection. These four birds are all that we know with 

 certainty as coming from Central America; but in the Eivoli collection, now the 

 property of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is, as Lawrence has 

 pointed out, a bird of this species said to have come from Mexico, but without further 

 particulars. Though doubtless found in Costa Rica, it has as yet escaped the notice of 

 the careful collectors who have worked in that country during the last thirty years. 

 The extension of the range of W. salvini into South America is shown by a bird of 

 Colombian origin in the British Museum, and by a specimen procured by Buckley on 

 the Hio Cotopaza in Eastern Ecuador. 



The species most nearly allied to N. salvini is JV. geoffroyi of South Brazil, from 

 which it may be distinguished by the lilac tint of the back, upper tail-coverts, and 

 wings, and by other slight characters. 



Of the habits ot W. salvini nothing has been recorded. It is evidently a rare bird, 

 as is each of the other members of the genus. 



GEOCOCCYX. 



Geococcyx, Wagler, Isis, 1831, p. 524 ; Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xix. p. 419. 



A genus containing two closely allied but distinct species, remarkable amongst the 

 Cuckoos of America for their form, colour, and habits. They belong to the group of 

 Ground-Cuckoos, as they pass their time mostly on the ground and run with great 

 swiftness. Their food consists of insects, and they build in low bushes and rear their 

 own broods. 



The range of Geococcyx extends from Nicaragua northwards, and passes beyond our 

 northern limit into the frontier States of North America. 



Both species are of large size with long tails, and the plumage of the upper surface 

 distinctly striated with light markings upon a dark purple-black ground. The bill is 

 long, the culmen nearly straight towards the base, but curving downwards rather 

 abruptly towards the tip ; the nostrils are oval and placed at the lower edge of the 

 nasal fossa, which is feathered over nearly the whole of its surface ; surrounding the 

 orbit is a brightly coloured space, which ends posteriorly in a scarlet patch ; the 

 eyelashes are strong, simple, flattened bristles ; the tarsi are long, the toes short, and 

 the tibiae clothed with short feathers ; the tail long and cuneate, the lateral feathers 

 reaching to about two-thirds of the whole length. 



1. Geococcyx californianus. 



? Phasianus mexicanus , Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 741 \ 



Geococcyx mexicanus, Strickl. Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1843, viii. p. 544'; Cassin, Birds Cal. & Tex. 

 p. 213, t. 86'; Sol. P. Z. S. 1857, p. 205*; 1864, p. 177'; Dugfes, La Nat. i. p. 139^ 

 Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 293"; Sumichrast, La Nat. v. p. 239'; Salv. Cat. 

 Strickl. Coll. p. 442°; Shelley, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xix. p. 419". 



