476 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — PICABIM — PICIFOBMES. 



young birds have the feathers of the upper parts skirted with whitish ; the bill and feet pale 

 bluish. Eastern U. S. and Canada, west to the Rocky Mts., N. to Labrador, common; rather 

 more northerly than C. americanus, being the commoner species in New England; said to 

 winter in Florida. Nest preferably in bushes, often quite near the ground; eggs 1.10 X 0.80, 

 greenish, deeper-colored, less elliptical and smaller than those of the yellow-billed cuckoo, 

 though probably not to be distinguished with certainty. 



429. C, america/nus. (Lat. American. Figs. 326, 327.) Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Bill black, 

 extensively yellow below and on the sides of upper mandible. Feet dark plumbeous. Above, 

 satiny olive-gray. Below, pure white. Wings extensively cinnamon-rufous on inner webs of 

 the quills. Central tail-feathers like the back ; the rest black with large white tips, the outer- 

 most usually also edged with white. Very constant in color, the chief variation being in extent 

 and intensity of the cinnamon on the wings, which sometimes shows through when the wings 

 are closed, and even tinges the coverts. Young diSer chiefly in having the white ends of the 

 tail-feathers less trenchant and extensive, the black not so pure ; this state approaches the con- 

 dition of C. erythrophthalmus, but does not match it. Leugth 11.00-12.00 ; extent 15.50-16.50 ; 

 wing 5.50-6.00; tail about 6.00; bill a short inch; tarsus 1.00; middle toe and claw rather 

 more. U. S., rather more southerly than the last species, and chieflj' Eastern ; but also. Pacific 

 coast and Southern Rocky Mts. Nest a slight structure of twigs, leaves and catkins, on a 

 bough or in fork of a tree rather than in a bush; eggs 4 to 8, pale greenish, 1.25 X 0.90, laid 

 irregularly, mostly in June. 



430. C. seni'culus. (Lat. senieulus, a little old man ; diminutive of senex, probably alluding to the 

 gray on the head.) Mangrove Cdckoo. Bill much as in the last. Above, the same quaker- 

 color, but more decidedly ashy-gray toward and on head. Below, pale orange-brovra. Wings 

 suffused with the color of the belly. Auriculars dark, in contrast. Tail as in the last, but 

 outer feather not white-edged. Size of the others, or rather less. West Indies; Florida, 

 rarely. Eggs as in C. americanus. 



5. SuBORDEB PICIFORMES: Piciform Birds. 



See p. 446 for characters of this suborder. It is a perfectly homogeneous group, so much 

 so as to be often reduced to the grade of a single family, Piddcs, then with lyngince and 

 PiewmnwuB as subfamilies. In palatal characters the Pioiform birds exhibit " a simplification 

 and degradation of the segithognathous structure" (Huxley), and this passerine affinity is borne 

 out by the common reduction of the first primary to small size or even spurious condition, leav- 

 ing but 9 functionally developed primaries; but the details of the construction of the bony 

 palate, as worked out by Parker, are so extraordinary that he has proposed to make the Pid- 

 fwmes one of the major divisions of Carinate birds (see p. 173, fig. 80). The greater secondary 

 coverts are likewise as short as in Passeres. The feet are highly scansorial by reversion of the 

 fourth toe. In typical Pici the bill is straight, hard, often strengthened by lateral ridges, and 

 forming an efficient chiselling instrument. The salivary glands are highly developed, and the 

 hyoidean apparatus is peculiar. The sternum is doubly-notched. Only the left carotid is 

 present ; the oil-gland is tufted, and there are no coeca. The accessory femoro-caudal, accessory 

 semitendinosus and ambiens muscle are absent. The nearest relatives of the Piciform birds are 

 the Capitonidee or Scansorial Barbets, and the Toucans (Bhamphastides) ; both of which arc 

 so closely affined that they might come under the above head, with little modification of tlie 

 characters here assigned. Of the three families here meant to be included by the term Pid- 

 formes, the Old World Tyngidee or Wrynecks are most unlike Woodpeckers, having a soft tail 

 and various other peculiarities. The Picumnida are more Woodpecker-like, but still tlic tail 

 is soft ; in general superficialities they resemble Nuthatches quite curiously. Exclusion of these 

 two families leaves us the 



