54 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
Family—C UCULIDA. 
Tue AMERICAN BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO. 
Coccyzus erythropthalmus, LIXN. 
SINGLE example was shot near Belfast in 1871. The same observation is 
applicable to this species as to the preceding one.* 
* On several occasions during the progress of the present work, I have been called to account for not 
illustrating and describing these so-called ‘‘ Rare British Birds,” the strongest argument brought forward being 
that should anyone perchance shoot one of them, he would be unable to name it by reference to our plates. 
This appears to me to be a very feeble excuse for the expenditure of much money and labour. It is possible 
that many (if not all) which I have passed over may have escaped from captivity; and, in any case, if a man 
shot a bird and tried to identify it by comparison with our plates, he would not be daunted by his failure to 
do so, but would forward it to the Natural History Museum or to some well-known Ornithologist.—A.G.B. 
