The nest is the flimsiest structure imaginable, being composed of a few dry twigs, evidently broken by the bird from the trees and not picked up from the ground. They are laid across each other to make a platform nest, but so small and flat is it that the eggs frequently fall out from it. That a bird should make no better preparation than this for the great business of propagation seems very wonderful. The eggs are three or four in number, elliptical in form, and of a dull sea-green colour.
[273.] COCCYZUS CINEREUS, Vieill.
(CINEREOUS CUCKOO.)
[Plate XIII.]
Coccyzus cinereus, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 108; Hudson, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 88 (Buenos Ayres); White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 620 (Buenos Ayres); Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 28 (Entrerios); Withington, Ibis, 1888, p. 468 (Lomas de Zamora).
Description.—Above cinereous, wings blackish; tail above blackish, beneath cinereous; lateral rectrices tipped with white: beneath, throat and breast pale cinereous, passing into white in the middle of the belly; under wing-coverts, flanks, and crissum ochraceous; bill black: whole length 9·0 inches, wing 4·5, tail 4·5. Female similar.
Hab. Paraguay and Argentine Republic.
The Cinereous Cuckoo is smaller than the preceding species, and also differs in having a square tail and a more curved beak. The beak is black, and the irides blood-red, which contrasts well with the blue-grey of the head, giving the bird a bold and striking appearance.
This species is not common, but it is, I believe, slowly extending its range southwards, as within the last few years it has become much more common than formerly. Like other Cuckoos, it is retiring in its habits, concealing itself in the dense foliage, and it cannot be attracted by an imitation of its call, an expedient which never fails with the Coucou. Its language has not that deep mysterious, or monkish quality, as it has been aptly called, of other Coccyzi. Its usual song or call, which it repeats at short intervals all day long during the love-season, resembles the song of our little dove (Columbula picui), and is composed of several long monotonous notes, loud, rather musical, but not at all plaintive. It also has a loud harsh cry, which one finds it hard to believe to be the voice of a Cuckoo, as in character it is more like the scream of a Dendrocolaptine species.