c. Lower mandible blackish like the upper (pale blue in life?).
C. erythrophthalmus. No rufous on primaries, except in young (which have black bill, brown tail-feathers, etc.). Beneath continuous white, with a faint ashy-buff shade across the jugulum; above grayish-brown. Bare eyelids bright red in the adult. Length, 11.30; wing, 5.12; tail, 6.24; tarsus, .90; culmen, 1.00. Hab. Eastern Province of the United States, south through eastern Middle America to Bogota.
Coccygus americanus, Bonap.
YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO.
Cuculus americanus, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 170, 10. Coccyzus americanus, Bon. Obs. Wilson, 1825, No. 47.—Ib. Conspectus, 1850, IV.—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 18, V; 520, pl. ii.—Ib. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 293, pl. cclxxv.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 76.—Scl. Cat. 1862, 322.—Cooper, Pr. Cal. Ac. 1868 (Sacramento, Cal.)—Samuels, 83.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 371. Erythrophrys americanus, Sw. Birds II, 1837.—Bon. List, 1838. Cureus americanus, Bon. List, Eur. Birds, 1842. ? Cuculus dominicensis, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 170, 13. ? Cuculus dominicus, Latham, Syst. I, 1790, 221 (considered distinct by Bonaparte). Coccygus dominicus, Baird, pl. Cuculus carolinensis (Brisson), Wilson, Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 13, pl. xxviii. Cuculus cinerosus, Temminck, Man. IV, 1835, 277. Coccyzus pyrrhopterus, Vieill. Dict. Coccygus bairdi, Sclater, P. Z. S. March, 1864, 120 (Jamaica; no rufous externally on wing). ? Coccygus julieni, Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VIII, June, 1864, 42, 99 (Sombrero Island; no rufous on wing).
Coccygus americanus.
Sp. Char. 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, 12.00; wing, 5.95; tail, 6.35.
Hab. Eastern United States to the Missouri plains. California and Nevada (Ridgway); Mazatlan; Jamaica; Porto Rico. Localities: ? Sta. Cruz (Newton, Ibis, I, 149, eggs!); Cuba (Cab. J. IV, 154; Gundl. Rep. I, 1866, 295); Jamaica (Gosse, B. Jam. 279?) Costa Rica (Cab. J. 1862, 167); Lower Rio Grande (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 466, breeds).
There is considerable variation in the amount of rufous in the quills; sometimes this shows very distinctly externally, sometimes it is entirely replaced by the bronzed olive of the back. A greater amount of the rufous