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woodeny, staccato whistles succeeding each other slowly at first, but with 
a gradually accelerated tempo, and every small bird within hearing will 
come to investigate. The Nuthatches, hanging head downward, waving 
their heads like pendulums, and pointing their straight, upturned bill 
first to one side and then to the other, quankmg as they do so. The Chick- 
adees, “ dee-deeing ,” their beady eyes twinkling with curiosity. Buzzing, 
squeaking, excited Hummingbirds will hum angrily around. Sparrows, 
Wrens, Vireos, Warblers, Jays, and many others, hurry with anxious cheeps 
to the spot, from the deep tangles of the brush, the middle thicket of the 
branches overhead, or even the topmost tip of the giant yellow pines, and 
press in excited review about the alarum. With this call, bird study is 
made most easy in the difficult country of British Columbia, and no orni- 
thologist there can afford not to learn it. If another Pygmy Owl hears the 
call, it comes immediately to challenge the intruder, sometimes two come 
together, find in each other the opponent they were seeking, and join in 
furious if elf-like combat. This is not direct evidence of the bird’s food 
habits, but is a good indication, and suggests that it is only its exceedingly 
diminutive size that limits its power of destruction and excludes it from the 
short list of wholly obnoxious Birds of Prey. 
Economic Status . The examination of six stomachs of southwestern 
birds showed insects and lizards in two of them, a white-footed mouse 
in another. Evidently, besides the bird-eating proclivities suggested by 
the preceding paragraph, it eats some insects, and is a mouser as would 
be expected. 
Order— Coccyges. Cuckoos and Kingfishers 
Systematic zoologists are not agreed on the classification of these 
birds. The present American Ornithologists’ Union Check-list (1910 
edition) recognizes them as composing a full order and divides the Canadian 
representatives into two suborders: Cuculi, including the American Cuckoos 
and extralimital families, and Alcyones , the Kingfishers. Distinctive 
characters are most easily described under the subfamily and specific 
headings. 
SUBORDER — CUCULI. CUCKOOS, ETC. 
This suborder is represented in North America by only one family, 
Cuculidae, comprising the Anis and two groups of Cuckoos. 
FAMILY — CUCULIDAE. AMERICAN CUCKOOS 
A family represented in North America by three subfamilies, only 
one of which occurs in Canada — Coccyzinae, the American Tree Cuckoos. 
Subfamily — Coccyzinae. American Tree Cuckoos 
General Description. Birds with weak feet and yoke toes, two toes directed forward 
and two backward (Figure 239). The bills are rather long, gently curved, and sharp 
pointed (Figure 239). The plumage is soft and thin, lacking in cohesion, and has the 
soft silky feeling associated with many tropical species. The tail is long, soft, and graduated. 
J Distinctions. May be distinguished from the Woodpeckers, which also have yoke 
foes, by the difference in the bills and tails. In the Woodpeckers, the bills are straight, 
stout, the tip chisel-pointed, and the tail is rather short, very stiff, and bristle-like at the 
tip (Figure 241). 
The Cuckoos are largely tropical in distribution. The two Canadian 
Cuckoos are outliers from the main body of species in warmer latitudes. 
