cuckow. 313 



70.— LONG-BILLED RAIN CUCKOW. 



C u cuius Vetula, Ind.OrnA. 218. Lin. i. 169. Gm.Lin.l 410. Borowsk. ii. 129. 



Gen. Zoo/, ix. p. 122. 

 Cuculus Jamaic. longiroster, Bris. iv. 116. t. 17. f. 1. /d. 8vo. ii. 74. Klein. Av. 



31. S. GeriB. t. 79. 

 Coucou a long bee, Tacco, Buf. vi. 402. P/. e?j/. 772. 

 Coua, Tern. Man. Ed. ii. Anal. p. lxxiii. 



Picus, seu Pluviee avis canescens, Raii 182. Sloan. Jam. 313. t. 258. f. 2. 

 Long-billed Rain Cuckow, Gen. Syn. ii. 535. Id. Sup. ii. 135. 



LENGTH fifteen inches or more. Bill one inch and a half, 

 moderately strait, but bent at the tip ; upper mandible black, the 

 lower whitish ; crown of the head brown, the feathers soft and silky ; 

 upper parts of the body and the quills cinereous olive ; throat and 

 neck before whitish ; the rest of the under parts rufous ; tail much 

 cuneated ; the two middle feathers cinereous olive, the others dusky 

 black, tipped with white, the outer feather very short ; legs blue- 

 black. 



Inhabits Jamaica, found in the woods, and hedges throughout 

 the year ; feeds on seeds, small worms, and caterpillars, and is very 

 familiar. Sloane mentions, that he found, on dissection, the stomach 

 of a great size in respect to that of the bird, which circumstance is 

 also observed in the European Cuckow. It has gained the name of 

 Tacco, from its cry, the syllable pronounced hardly ; the other a 

 full octave lower. It has also another cry like qua qua qua, when 

 alarmed. It will eat Lizards, small snakes, frogs, young rats, and 

 sometimes small birds, as well as insects ; the snakes it swallows 

 head foremost, letting the tail hang out of the mouth, till the fore 

 parts are digested; i« easily tamed, and so gentle as to suffer the 

 Negro children to catch it with their hands ; the gait is leaping, like 

 Magpie, frequently being seen on the ground, and its flight but 

 short, chiefly from bush to bush ; at the time when other birds breed, 

 they retire also into the woods, for the same purpose ; I learn from 



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