CUCULIDAE 



357 



with a lateral hole ; it is placed in a tree, a thorny bush, or a 

 tuft of herbage. The three to six oval eggs are white or bluish 

 with a readily-stained chalky coating ; the young are soon able to 

 skulk among the foliage. C. toulou is held sacred in Madagascar. 



Sub-fam. 3. Phoenicophainae. — Taccocua sirkee, the Indian 

 Sirkeer, has somewhat similar habits, but makes a flat nest. It is 

 olive-brown above, relieved by black and white, and rufous below. 

 Coua is peculiar to Madagascar, G. caerulea having loose blue 

 plumage, glossed with violet on the tail, and dark blue naked 

 orbits ; but the other species are more olive or grey, with black or 

 rufous on the head, throat, or mantle. The large, shy members of 

 this handsome genus frequent the edges of forests ; but whereas five 

 species fly heavily and climb well, jumping from branch to branch 

 with elevated rectrices, occasionally assisted by their beaks, the 

 remaining seven rarely leave the ground, where they run about with 

 the tail trailing. The note is a harsh "tashu" or a sharp " turruh"; 

 the food consists of seeds, insects, worms, small mammals, birds, 

 and molluscs — the last broken on stones ; the nest of twigs and fibres 

 is placed in high trees, and contains two or three white eggs.'' 



Saurothera, Hyetornis, and Piaya are the " Eain-birds " of the 

 Bahamas and Antilles, the latter genus extending to Bolivia and 

 Argentina. They are inactive, wary birds, which hide and creep 

 about with outspread tails when in the trees, but are more at ease 

 upon the ground ; the cry is a loud harsh scream or cackle ; the 

 food consists of insects, berries, lizards, and mice ; the flat nest 

 contains two or three white eggs. P. cayana is reddish-brown 

 above with a violet tinge, and grey below with pinkish throat ; 

 the tail shewing a subterminal black bar and a white tip, and the 

 bare orbits being red. Phoenicophms py^'rhocephalus of Ceylon 

 is dark green, with bluish wings, blackish head and chest, tail 

 varied with white, and white breast ; the forehead and sides of 

 the head being red and rugose. It is a fruit-eating forest species, 

 said to be parasitic, though the allied Bhopodytes of the Indian 

 Eegion lays two or "three white eggs in a slight nest of sticks 

 and leaves, while the pugnacious Rhamphococcyx calorhynchus, 

 the " foreteller by day " of Celebes, builds a similar structure.^ 



Sub-fam. 4. Neomorphinae. — Geococcyx mexicanus, the curious 

 Chapparal-Cock or Eoad-runner of the South-Western United 

 States and Mexico, frequents thinly-wooded country, hilly cactus- 

 1 Cf. Sibree, Ibis, 1891, pp. 218-219. ^ Cf. Meyer, ut supra (p. 356). 



