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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and the order Scansores (32), and is primarily divided into two sub- 

 orders, namely suborder I, Musophagi, and suborder 2, Cuculi. In 

 his arrangement the Cuculinae constitutes subfamily 1 of the family 

 Cuculidae, and it is among the Cuculinae that he places both the 

 genera here to be described, namely Coccystes and Cuculus. 1 So 

 far as I am aware, this eminent authority still adheres to the class- 

 ification cited, and in many respects it is probably not far from the 

 natural one. 



The Cuculinae are represented in the United States avifauna by 

 the genus Coccyzus, which contains a number of species of the 

 typical tree cuckoos, of which the Yellow-billed cuckoo (C . 

 americanus) is a good example. 



Skull. With respect to its general morphology the skull in Coc- 

 cystes agrees in its characters with this part of the skeleton among 

 the Cuculinae at large. When viewed in its entirety, however, the 

 most notable feature that strikes one is its rather marked depression 

 from above, downward, with a corresponding broadening of the 

 cranium and the mandibles, lending to it a form which is carried to 

 the extreme in the Caprimulgi. This is especially noticeable when 

 the skull is seen from above, exhibiting the broad base of the superior 

 mandible ; the inclination of the lacrymals to come into the horizon- 

 tal plane not being directed so much anteriorly as in Cuculus; and 

 showing the broad, smooth, nearly level frontal area, situated between 

 the superior orbital peripheries. The parietal region is smooth, and 

 shows no median, longitudinal furrow, while, anteriorly, a very dis- 

 tinct transverse one, passing from the middle point of one lacrymal 

 bone to that of the one of the opposite side, divides the mandibular 

 from the frontal region. The superior mandible is elegantly de- 

 curved, with rounded culmen, the whole narrowing rapidly as it 

 passes from the broad base to the sharply pointed apex. Either 

 tomium is distinctly cultrate. Regarded upon its lateral aspect, a 

 nasal bone is seen to be large, spreading well forward and thus 

 very much diminishing the size of the external narial aperture. This 

 latter is of an elliptical outline, and not more than half the size 

 it is found to be in its relative, the common cuckoo (C. can or us), 

 a smaller bird than C.glandarius. A lacrymal bone practically 

 agrees with that ossicle as we find it in Coccyzus and Geococcyx. 



In the skull of Coccystes at hand there appears to be no ossiculum 

 lacrymopalatinum (os uncinatum) present upon either side, and if 



1 R. Rowdier Sharpe LL.D. A Hand- List of the Genera and Species of Rirds. [No- 

 menclator Avium turn fossilium turn viventium] v. 2. Lond. 1900. 



