The figure (Plate XIII.) is taken from a specimen of this species obtained by Mr. Frank Withington in the Lomas de Zamora, and now in Sclater’s collection.
[274.] COCCYZUS PUMILUS, Strickl.
(DWARF CUCKOO.)
Coccyzus pumilus, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 108; Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 28, (Entrerios).
Description.—Above brownish cinereous, head grey; tail like the back, but tail-end black with narrow white tips: beneath, throat and breast chestnut-red; abdomen white; under wing-coverts and crissum ochraceous: whole length 9·0 inches, wing 4·0, tail 4·2. Female similar.
Hab. South America.
Of this little Cuckoo, the smallest of the genus Coccyzus, specimens were obtained by Mr. Barrows at Concepcion in Entrerios, in the month of December. The species was only previously known to occur in Venezuela and Colombia.
[ Fam. XXVIII. RHAMPHASTIDÆ, or TOUCANS.]
In the second edition of his ‘Monograph of the Toucans,’ Gould admits 51 species of this fine and peculiar group, which are scattered over the forests of Tropical America, from Southern Mexico to Northern Argentina. Several others have been since described.
The Toucans are large birds exclusively arboreal in their habits, and feeding mostly, if not entirely, upon fruit. A single species of wide distribution reaches its southern limit in the forests of the northern Argentine provinces.