Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Family CUCULID. The Cuckoos. COCCYGUS, VEEttixxr. COceyau, Vieillot. Aualyse (1816). EryOirophrys, Swainson. Class. Birds, II. (1837), 822. Head without crest ; feathers about base of bill soft ; bill nearly as long as i He head, decurved, slender, and attenuated towards the end; nostrils linear; wings lengthened, reaching the middle of the tail; the tertials short; tail of ten graduated feathers ; feet weak ; tarsi shorter than the middle toe. The species of Coccyyus are readily distinguished from those of Gencoccyx by their arborial habits, confining themselves mainly to trees, instead of living habitually on the ground. The plumage is soft, fine, and compact. The American cuckoos differ from the European cuckoos ( Cuculus) by having lengthened naked tarsi, instead of very short feathered ones; the nostrils an elongated, too, instead of rounded. COCCYGUS AMERICANOS.— Bonaparte. The Yellow-billed Cuekoo. Cucutia Americanus, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766). Coccyzus Americanus, Audubon. Orn. Biog., I. t1832). Bonap. Syn., 42. Cuculus Carotinema. Wilson, 267. Description. Upper mandible, and tip of lower black ; rest of lower mandible, and cutting edges of the upper yellow; upper parts of a metallic greenish-olive, slightly tinged with ash towards the bill; beneath white; tail feathers (except the median, which are like the back) black, tipped with white for about an inch on the outer feathers, the external one with the outer edge almost entirely white ; quills orange-cinnamon; the terminal portion and a gloss on the outer webs olive ; iris brown. Length, twelve inches ; wing, five and ninety-five one-hundredths ; tail, six and thirty-five one-hundredths. bird is very irregularly distributed through New JL England as a summer visitor. A. E....