184 YELLOW-BILLED COTJCAL. 
true cuckoos, the only parasitic birds, save one*, in 
creation, deposit their eggs in the nests of strangers, 
but build one of their own, hatching their eggs, and 
rearing their young, with the same parental care as 
all other birds. The Coucals are a numerous divi- 
sion, hut the whole are inhabitants of hot latitudes : 
those found in America constitute the genus Coc- 
cyzus as we now propose to restrict it, while those 
of India and Africa we place under the new sub- 
genus of Leptounis ; the species are at once dis- 
tinguished by the great dilation of the base of the 
upper mandible, which is not only under than that 
of the lower, but folds over in such a way as entirely 
to conceal its basal margin. "We shall now describe 
a typical example of this form, another will he found 
in the Phamicophams Javanicus of Dr Horsfield, 
and several more are scattered in the artificial divi- 
sions recently proposed by certain French writers. 
The colouring of this bird although very rich, is 
very simple ; the bill is entirely of a fine yellow co- 
lour, excepting a small spot of what, in the dead 
bird, appears to be black, placed at the base of the 
culmen, and which covers the nostrils ; the orbits, 
which are naked, appear also black. The upper 
part of the head and neck is of a dark blackish grey, 
which changes in a very gradual manner to a deep 
blackish purple, and this colour becomes brightest 
on the tail and its covers, which reflect glosses 
of purple-violet and lilac ; this latter reflection is 
* The Molothrus pecoris, Swains , or Cow Bunting of Wil- 
son's American Ornithology. 
