IO 
PICARIAN BIRDS. 
is placed at varying heights above the ground, in the centre of thick, thorny 
bushes or trees. It is usually made of dry twigs, lined with a few green leaves, 
but all kinds of odds and ends are at times incorporated into the fabric. 
Occasionally quite different materials are made use of, the nest consisting almost 
wholly of leaves, rushes, or coarse grass.” 
With these birds we come to another subfamily, known as the 
Rain-Cuckoos. kush-cuckoos ( PhoenicophceincB ), and including upwards of sixteen 
genera. Their bright metallic plumage, and short, rounded wings, show 
that they are resident in the countries where they live, and are not migratory 
THE ROAD-RUNNER (J nat. size). 
like the long-winged cuckoos. They are mostly Indian and Malayan, but one 
genus ( Ceuthmochares) is African; while two genera (Saurothera and Hyetornis ) 
belong to the New World. With the exception of Coua , which is a Madagascar 
form, they have all some bright colours on the face or bill, the latter being in 
many of the genera parti-coloured and brilliant. The rain-cuckoos in the West 
Indies, are only found inhabiting the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. They 
attain to a size of 18 or 20 inches, are mostly of an ashy-brown colour with rufous 
wings, with white-tipped tail-feathers, these having a black bar before the tip. 
The Jamaican species is a bird of retiring habits, generally sitting immovable in a 
dull and sluggish manner, but on alighting in a tree it “ traverses the branches with 
facility by a succession of vigorous jumps, when it appears active enough.” The 
