Coccyzus seniculus.
| Cuculus seniculus, | Linn.—Aud. pl. 169. |
| Erythrophrys seniculis, | Sw. |
[83] Length 12½ inches, expanse 15½, flexure 5, tail 6¾, rictus 1⁴⁄₁₀. tarsus 1¹⁄₁₀, middle toe 1¹⁄₁₀, versatile toe ⁹⁄₁₀. Intestine 10 inches; two cæca, 1¼ inch long, about 1½ inch from cloaca.
The tawny underparts, contrasted with the sober grey of the upper, glossed like shot-silk, and the long tail beautifully barred with black and white, render the subject before us one of the handsomest of this genus of Cuckoos. It is a dull, and, so to speak, a stupid bird; we not unfrequently see it suddenly fly out from the woods, and crossing the road rest on a branch at a short distance, where it sits little disturbed by the proximity of passengers: or jumps to another twig near, and thence to another. I have never heard it utter a sound. It lives on soft insects, large spiders, &c., which are stationary, and which it seeks by thus peeping among the trees, and for the capture of which long flights would be unnecessary.
I know nothing of its domestic economy; but in January I have found eggs in the ovary, as large as dust-shot.
The shortness of the intestinal canal, and its freedom from convolutions is remarkable, and struck me forcibly by comparison with that of a White-winged Dove, which I happened to dissect on the same day with this. The length of the intestine in the granivorous bird was forty-one inches, that in the insectivorous, ten.
SAVANNA BLACKBIRD.[84]
Crotophaga Ani.—Linn.
Pl. Enl. 102.