Hab. Florida Keys to West Indies. Localities: ? Sta. Cruz (Newton, Ibis, I, 150); Cuba (Cab. J. IV, 154; Gundl. Repert. I, 1866, 295); Jamaica (Gosse, B. Jam. 281).
This species is readily distinguishable by its fulvous under parts, dark ear-coverts, and lack of rufous on inner webs of quills. It has the yellow bill and dark tail, with broad white tips, of C. americanus, although the white does not extend along the outer web of the feathers.
According to Mr. Audubon, this species is a regular summer visitor to Key West and the other Florida keys.
This species is more especially West Indian, occurring in nearly all the islands. There are some local variations in color (Porto-Rican being much redder, Bahaman paler), as well as in size, but in a large series from the same island there will be found such differences as to warrant us in considering all as one species. In a very large series before us, we cannot see any tangible difference, although Cabanis and Sclater recognize a C. nesiotes from the Antillean West Indies, as distinguished from C. seniculus from South American and the windward West Indies; the former, smaller and paler, and, according to Cabanis, with the white of tip of tail confined to the inner web; the latter darker beneath, and larger. These characters I do not find substantiated, nor have I seen one specimen without white in both webs at the ends of the tail-feathers.
As the name of C. minor is the earliest one for at least the South American race, we retain it in preference to seniculus, as although scarcely minor in this genus, it is so compared with Piaya, Geococcyx, and Saurothera.
Habits. This species claims a place in the fauna of North America as a resident of the Florida keys. This is the only locality positively known as its habitat within the limits of the territory of the United States. The only specimen referred to in the ninth volume of the Pacific Railroad Surveys was supposed to have been obtained in Florida. Mr. Nuttall, who
was the first to include the Mangrove Cuckoo among North American birds, speaks of it as an inhabitant chiefly of Cayenne, and as occasionally visiting the extreme Southern States. Mr. Audubon, who was the first to meet with the species within the limits of the United States, only obtained specimens of it in Florida, near Key West. I have seen a specimen which was given to Mr. John G. Bell as having been procured in Southern Mississippi. Mr. Gosse obtained specimens of this bird in Jamaica, though he had no opportunity of observing its domestic economy. In the month of January the specimens he dissected had eggs in their ovaries as large as duck-shot. Dr. Gundlach gives it as a Cuban bird, but does not mention it as one that breeds on that island. The Newtons met with this species in St. Croix, but appear to have regarded it as not a summer resident, but only in the light of a visitant in the winter.
Mr. March, referring without doubt to this species, mentions it as a constant resident in the island of Jamaica, where it is common in the lowlands during summer. It is said to breed from March to July, building in the low branches of trees or in shrubs. The nest is described as a structure composed of a few dry sticks, so loosely put together that it falls to pieces on any attempt to remove it. Three, rarely four, eggs are laid, which are of a glaucous-green color, oval, generally round at both ends, and varying in size from 1.25 inches by .90 to 1.38 inches by 1 inch.
Of late years no specimens seem to have been obtained in Florida, either by Maynard or by the many other explorers of the Peninsula; and even if the earlier notices are correct, we may have to consider it as merely a straggler from the Bahamas, like Certhiola bahamensis, Crotophaga ani, Phonipara zena, Vireosylvia barbatula, etc.
Mr. Audubon, who was the only one of our naturalists who met with the nest and eggs, discovered them near Key West. He describes the nest as slightly constructed of dry twigs, and as almost flat, nearly resembling that of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. The eggs are the same in number and form as those of that species, but are somewhat larger. It is said to raise two broods in one season, and to feed its young on insects until they are able to provide for themselves. An old bird, caught on its nest, which Mr. Audubon saw confined in a cage, refused all food and soon pined itself to death,—thus evincing, in his opinion, the great affection these birds have for their own eggs. An egg in the Smithsonian Institution collection, given me by Mr. John G. Bell of New York, is said to have been obtained in Mississippi with the parent bird. Its color has slightly faded, and, except in its greater comparative breadth, it is not distinguishable from the eggs of the Yellow-bill.