Coccygus erythrophthalmus, Bon.
BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO.
Cuculus erythrophthalmus, Wilson, Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 16, pl. xxviii. Coccyzus erythrophthalmus, Bon. Obs. Wils. 1825, 48.—Ib. Consp. 1850, IV.—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 170; V, 523, pl. xxxii.—Ib. Birds America, IV, 1842, 300, pl. cclxxvi.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 77.—Scl. Cat. 1862, 323.—Samuels, 85. Erythrophrys erythrophthalmus, Bon. List, 1838. Coccyzus dominicus, (Lath.) Nutt. Man. I, 1832, 556 (not of Latham, which belongs rather to C. americanus, on account of the red quills and white edge of outer tail-feather).
Sp. Char. Bill entirely black. Upper parts generally of a metallic greenish-olive, ashy towards the base of the bill; beneath pure white, with a brownish-yellow tinge on the throat. Inner webs of the quills tinged with cinnamon. Under surface of all the tail-feathers hoary ash-gray. All, except the central on either side, suffused with darker to the short, bluish-white, and not well-defined tip. A naked red skin round the eye. Length, about 12.00; wing, 5.00; tail, 6.50.
Hab. United States to the Missouri plains, south to Bogota. Localities: Cuba (Cab. J. IV, 154, nests; Gundl. Repert. I, 1866, 295); Guatemala (Salvin, Ibis, II, 276); Mexico and Bogota (Scl. Cat. 323); Isth. Panama (Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VII, 62); Costa Rica (Lawr. N. Y. Lyc. IX, 128).
This species differs from the C. americanus in the black bill, and the absence of black on the tail-feathers, the white tips of which are much shorter and less abruptly defined. One specimen (5,253) from the Upper Missouri has a much stronger tinge of yellowish-cinnamon on the inner webs of the quills than the others. The sexes are quite similar.
Habits. The Black-billed Cuckoo, so closely allied with the common species in respect to size, appearance, habits, and all its general characteristics, is also distributed throughout very nearly the same localities, where, however, it is usually regarded as a much less abundant bird. It is found throughout the United States as far west as the Missouri plains. Dr. Woodhouse met with this bird in his expedition down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers, but states that he saw but very few, either in Texas or in the Indian Territory. Lembeye, De la Sagra, and Dr. Gundlach include it as a visitant, in the winter months, to Cuba. Mr. Audubon met with this Cuckoo in Louisiana only a few times in the course of his various researches, and never in any Western State except Ohio. He does not seem to have been aware that it ever breeds south of North Carolina. From thence to Maine, and even as far north as the Canadas, Nova Scotia, and Southern Labrador, he gives as its distribution during the breeding-season. He also regarded it as much more common in low and wooded ground on the borders of the sea, where it frequents the edges of woods rather than their interior, and chiefly on the edges of creeks, and in damp places. Mr. Nuttall appeared to have regarded it as very nearly as common as the Yellow-bill throughout the United States, and as extending its migrations as far north as Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. He states that it is found in St.
Domingo and Guiana, and also, on the authority of Mr. Abbott, that it breeds in Georgia as early as the 1st of April. Mr. Audubon says it was never met with by Dr. Bachman in South Carolina. It certainly breeds, however, as far south, at least, as Georgia, as the nest and eggs of this species were taken at Varnell Station, in the northwestern part of that State, by the late Dr. Alexander Gerhardt.
It is not mentioned by either Dr. Gambel or Dr. Heermann as among the birds of the Pacific Coast, and it does not appear to have been actually obtained by any of the expeditions to the Pacific beyond the Indian Territory. Its distribution, therefore, during the breeding-season, would seem to be from Georgia to Canada, and from Texas to Minnesota, inclusive of all the intermediate territory. Dr. Newberry frequently saw and heard what he supposed to have been this species, in the trees bordering Cow Creek, near Fort Reading, but as he did not secure a specimen, he may have been mistaken. It has been taken at Devil’s Lake, in Minnesota, and in the Red River Settlement.
Wilson describes the nest of this bird as generally built in a cedar, much in the same manner, and of nearly the same materials, as that of the Yellow-bill; the eggs are smaller than those of that bird, usually four or five in number, and of a deeper greenish-blue.