436 On the Natural History of the Cuculidai. 
wings, and circular nostrils, and whose habits are parasitic, will ar- 
range themselves under one or other of the foregoing genera. Nor 
are there wanting considerations, drawn from their analogical re- 
semblances in other groups, which render it highly probable that 
they serve to indicate a circular group. Erylhrophrys, as the rasorial 
type, resembles the rufous- winged scansorial creeper ; and as it is 
by this group that the parasitic cuckoos lead immediately to those 
which build nests; so we have the external characters of Oxylo- 
phus joined to the economy of Coccyzus. Chalcites, again, as repre- 
senting the humming-birds, may be viewed as the tenuirostral type ; 
while Eudynamys, with its large bill, and black glossy plumage, 
will become the representative of the Toucans, and of the fissiros- 
tral type. It may be questioned, indeed, whether Cuculus or Oxy- 
lophus follows Eudynamys ; but I incline to the series in which they 
are here placed, from the obvious affinity of Erythrophrys to Oxy- 
lophus. 
Concentrating the foregoing remarks, we may state the essential 
external characters of the sub-family I have now attempted to illus- 
trate, in the following table of the 
Sub-family Cuculince. 
CUCULUS, Linn. 
Bill broad at the base, compressed beyond, the upper mandible 
obsoletely notched ; nostrils circular, with a tumid margin ; wings 
long, pointed, the third quill longest, the second and fourth of equal 
length ; feet slender, very short, tarsi feathered, posteriorly al- 
most to the toes ; rump and upper tail-covers long, thick-set, and 
rigid. Inhabits the old world ; parasitic. 
Type. Cuculus canorus, Lin. 
OXYLOPHUS, Sw. 
Bill slender, considerably compressed nearly its whole length ; 
upper mandible entire ; nostrils ovately round ; head crested ; wings 
moderate, pointed, shorter than the tail-covers, the fourth quill long- 
est ; tarsi moderate, naked ; upper tail-covers long, but not rigid. 
Inhabits the old world ; parasitic. 
Type. Coccyzus. Levaillanti, Sw. Zool. 111. ii. pi. 13. 
ERYTHROPHRYS, Stv. 
Bill as in Oxylophus ; head not crested ; nostrils oval ; wings 
lengthened, pointed, extending beyond the tail covers, the third 
quill longest, the second much shorter than the fourth ; tarsi mo- 
derate, naked. Inhabit the new world, and rear their own young. 
Type Cuculus Carolinensis, Wilson, iv. 23. f. 1. 
