146. 
/ 
CUCULIDZ CROTOPHAGINZ:: ANIS. 471 
forms showing peculiar minor modifications ; these correspond in great measure with certain 
geographical areas of faunal distribution, and are generally held to constitute subfamilies. 
Three or four such are con- 
fined to America; about twice 
as many belong exclusively to 
the Old World; among them 
are the Cuculine, or typical 
cuckoos allied to the European 
C. canorus (fig. 322), famous, 
like our Cowbird, for their 
parasitism. This section com- 
prehends the great majority of 
the Old World species; the 
Couine are a peculiar Mada- 
gastan type; others rest upon 
a special condition of the 
claws or plumage.. There are 
about 200 current species of 
the family. Many of them, 
besides the one just cited in 
instance, lay their eggs in 
other birds’ nests. The Amer- 
ican cuckoos have been de- 
clared free of suspicion of such 
domestic irregularities ; but, though pretty well- behaved, their record is not quite clean: they 
do sometimes slip into the wrong nest. The curious infelicity seems to be connected in some 
way with the inability of the Q to complete her clutch of eggs with the rapidity and regularity 
usual among birds, and so incubate them in one batch. The nests of our species of Coecygus 
commonly contain young by the time the last egg of the lot is laid. 
We have three very distinct genera, usually referred to as many subfamilies. 
Fic. 322. — European Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus, (From Dixon.) 
Analysis of Subfamilies and Genera. 
CROTOPHAGINE. Terrestrial. Tail of 8 feathers. Bill compressed, crested. Plumage lustrous black 
i Crotophaga 146 
SAUROTHERINE. Terrestrial. Tail of10feathers. Feet ambulatorial, with long tarsi. Geococcyx 147 
Coccyreina&. Arboreal. Tail of 10 feathers. Feet insessorial, with short tarsi . i Coceygus 148 
36. Subfamily CROTOPHACINA: Anis. 
Tail of eight feathers, graduated, longer than the rounded wings. Bill exceedingly com- 
pressed, the upper mandible rising into a thin vertical crest, the sides usually suleate, the tip 
deflected. Plumage uniform (black), lustrous, the feathers of the head and neck lengthened, 
lanceolate, distinct, with scale-like margins ; face naked. Terrestrial. Nest in bushes. One 
geuus, of three species, of the warmer parts of America. 
CROTO’PHAGA. (Gr. kporay, kroton, a bug; ddyos, phagos, eating.) Anis. In addition 
to the characters of the subfamily: Bill about as long as head, with regularly convex or angu- 
lated culmen, its sides smooth, wrinkled, or sulcate ; tip of upper mandible decurved over end 
of lower; gonys straight. Wings rounded; 4th or 5th primary longest, Ist quite short. Tail- 
feathers broad, widening to very obtuse ends. Tarsus longer than middle toe, anteriorly 
broadly seutellate, the sides with large plates meeting in a ridge behind. According to the 
concurrent testimony of various independent observers, the cuculine irregularity of nesting is 
expressed in a very curious manner, in the case of C. ani at least; several birds forming @ 
