244 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



Mr. Peale remarks of the bird before us : 



" This species was seen in various places on the west coast of Ame- 

 rica from Puget's Sound in the north to CaHfornia. It was most com- 

 mon in the southern part of that country, and observed to entirely 

 replace the Auratus or golden-winged woodpecker, which was not seen 

 by the members of the Expedition while in that country." 



The genus Colaptes is one of the groups in which species are sepa- 

 rated only by narrow lines of difference, and specimens constantly 

 occur which can be referred with equal propriety to two or perhaps 

 more species. We have seen specimens of the common Colaptes aura- 

 tus, in which the yellow of the quills and tail were tinged with red so 

 deeply, that they might readily have been presumed to have belonged 

 to Colaptes mexicanns. It is the same case with the western Colaptes 

 Ayresii, Audubon. The several North American species of this genus 

 are, moreover, almost exactly identical in form and size, differing 

 specifically only in colors. 



3. Family CUCULIDvE.— The Cuckoos. 

 1. Ctenus CUCULUS, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, p. 168 (1766). 

 1. CucuLus TENUiROSTKis, Lessou. 



Cucnius tcnuiwstns, Lesson, Traite d'Orn. I, p. 146 (1831); PUCHERAN, Rev. et 

 Mag. de Zool. 1853, p. 69. 



Cuculus fucatus, Peale, Zool. U. S. Exp. Exp. Birds, p. 136 (1st edition, 1848).* 



* "Crown, back, and rump, dark ashy gray; wings, fuscous; auriculars, throat, and 

 breast, light cinereous-gray; abdomen and under tail-coverts pale ochre-yellow, crossed by 

 waving lines of black ; tail rounded, dusky, black at the end and outer margin ; each feather 

 tipped with white, and having five or six lengthened white spots on the shafts, and more 

 numerous notch-like spots on the edge of the inner web ; wings long, pointed ; third quill 

 longest, second and fourth equal; primaries banded with white on the inner webs; 

 secondaries having the basal half of the inner webs white; under coverts buff, crossed 

 with black lines ; irides light brown, eyelids and feet bright yellow ; bill yellow at base; 

 upper mandible olive, black at the tip; lower mandible olive its whole length; inside of 

 the mouth orange. Male. 



" Total length, twelve inches ; extent of wings, twenty inches ; wings, from the carpal 

 joint, seven and a half inches; tail, five and seven-tenths inches; outer feathers, four 

 and three-tenths inches; tarsi, thirteen-twentieths of an inch; middle toe, including the 



