WILSON’S 
AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 
YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. — CUCULUS CAROLINENSIS. 
Plate XXVIII. Fig. 1. 
Cuculus Amei'icanus, Linn. Syst. 170. — Catesb. i. 9. — Lath. i. 537. — Le Coucou 
de la Caroline, Briss. iv. 112. — Arct. Zool. 265, No. 155. • — Peale’6 Museum , 
No. 1778. 
COCCYZUS AMERICANUS. — Bonaparte. * 
Coccyzus Americanus, Bonap. Synop. p. 42. — The Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Aud. pi. 2. 
Orn. Biog. i. p. 18. 
A stranger who visits the United States, for the purpose 
of examining their natural productions, and passes through 
our woods in the month of May or June, will sometimes hear, 
* Bonaparte has preferred restoring the specific name of Linnjeus to that 
given by Catesby and Brisson, and by this it should stand in our systems. 
This form will represent in America the true Cuckoos, which otherwise 
range over the world ; it was first separated by Vaillant under the French 
name Conec, and the same division was adopted by Vieillot, under the name 
of Coccyzus, which is now retained. They differ from the Cuckoos chiefly in 
habit, — building a regular nest, and rearing their young. North America 
possesses only two species, our present and the following, which are both 
migratory. Some beautiful species are met with in different parts of the 
southern continent. 
Mr Audubon has added little to their history farther than confirming the 
accounts of Wilson. In their migrations northward, they move singly ; but 
VOL. II. 
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