Coccyzus americanus, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 108; Sclater, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 490 (Buenos Ayres); Withington, Ibis, 1888, p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora).
Description.—Above grey; ear-coverts blackish; wings in interior rufous, which shows more or less externally: beneath white, greyish on the throat; tail-feathers, except the two central which are like the back, black broadly tipped with white; bill with the lower mandible orange-yellow, except at the tip: whole length 12·0 inches, wing 5·7, tail 5·7. Female similar.
Hab. North and Central America and Colombia; occasional in Brazil and Argentina.
This is a well-known inhabitant of the United States, where it is a regular summer visitant, passing the winter months in Central America and the West Indies, and being also occasionally met with during this season in Brazil. In the Argentine Republic it is very rare, and the few specimens found were all seen late in the autumn, after other summer visitors had left. I can only account for the lateness of these birds on the supposition that, being low fliers, excessively shy, and eminently forest birds, they shrunk from traversing the wide open plains which offer no kind of shelter or protection, and so remained in the isolated plantations which rise like little islands of greenery in the sea-like level of the pampas.
[272.] COCCYZUS MELANOCORYPHUS, Vieill.
(BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO.)
Coccyzus melanocoryphus, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 108; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 186 (Buenos Ayres); Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 28 (Entrerios); Withington, Ibis, 1888, p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora). Coccyzus seniculus, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 444 (Paraná, Tucuman).
Description.—Above pale greyish brown; head cinereous; a black stripe through the eyes: beneath white, more or less tinged with ochraceous; tail black, tipped with white; two central rectrices like the back; bill black: whole length 11·5 inches, wing 4·7, tail 5·7. Female similar.
Hab. South America.
The “Coucou,” so called from its note, is the commonest species of the genus in the Argentine Republic, and has an extensive range in South America. In September it migrates south, and a pair or a few individuals reappear faithfully every spring in every orchard or plantation on the pampas. At intervals its voice is heard amidst the green trees—deep, hoarse, and somewhat human-like in sound, the song or call being composed of a series of notes, like the syllables cou-cou-cou, beginning loud and full and becoming more rapid until at the end they run together. It is a shy bird, conceals itself from prying eyes in the thickest foliage, moves with ease and grace amongst the closest twigs, and feeds principally on large winged insects, for which it searches amongst the weeds and bushes near the ground.