LONG-BILLED RAIN CUCKOW. 

 (Cuculus Vetula.) 



C. cauda cuneiformi, corpore suhfusco subtus testaceo, ciliis 

 rubris. 



Cuckow with a wedge-shaped tail, and subfuscous body, beneath 



testaceous, ciliae red. 

 Cuculus Vetula. Lin. Syst. Nat. 1. 169. 4. — Gmel. Sgst. Nat. 



1.410. — Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. 218. 36. 

 Cuculus jamaicensis longiroster. Bris. 4. 116. 5. t. \7*f. 2. 

 Le Coucou a long bee, Tacco. Buff. Hist. Nat. Ois. 6. 402. — 



Buff. PL Enl. 772. 

 Long-billed rain Cuckow. Lath. Syn. 2. 535. 32. 



Rather larger than a Blackbird : beak above 

 an inch and a half in length ; the upper mandible 

 black ; the lower whitish : crown of the head 

 brown ; the feathers of it soft and silky : upper 

 parts of the body and the quills cinereous olive : 

 throat and fore part of the neck whitish ; the rest 

 of the under parts rufous ; tail very much wedge- 

 shaped ; the two middle feathers cinereous olive, 

 the others dusky black, with white tips f the outer 

 feathers very short : legs blue-black. 



This species inhabits Jamaica, where it is fre- 

 quent all the year round in woods and hedges. 

 It feeds on seeds, small worms, and caterpillars, 

 and is very tame. This bird has the name Tacco, 

 from its cry, which is like that word; the first 

 syllable of this is pronounced hardly, the other 

 following in a full octave lower than the first. It 

 has also another cry like qua, qua, qua, but that 



