230 
ZOOLOGY. 
The second group, the CuciiU, comprise the horn-bills 
of Malaysia, the kingfisliers, the toucans of South America, 
known by tlieir enormous vaulted bill, and the cuckoos, 
with their near relations, the African guide-birds. The 
female horn-bill makes a nest in a hollow ti'ee, and the male 
has the extraordinary habit, while the female is sitting on 
her egg, of plastering up the opening with mud, so that 
she can only stick the end of her great bill out of the small 
hole. The male feeds her during the whole time of incu- 
FiG. 270,— Nighthawk. Fig. 271.— Kingbird. 
bation and until the young bird is fledged. These are suc- 
ceeded by the Cypseliy embracing the humming-birds, goat- 
suckers, swifts, nighthawk {CJiordeiles Virginianus, Fig. 
268), and whippoorwill, which have long pointed wnngs, 
great powers of flight, small weak feet, and, in the hum- 
ming-birds, long slender bills. The latter are peculiar to 
America, being chiefly confined to South and Central Amer- 
ica, only one species (Trochihcs colulris) extending into the 
Eastern United States, though a dozen or more species occur 
iu the Western United States, and very many in Mexico, 
