(SPOTTED PUFF-BIRD.)
+Bucco maculatus+, _Scl. Jamacars and Puff-birds_, p. 99, pl. xxxii.;
_Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 106. +Capito maculatus+, _Burm.
La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 446.
_Description._--Above blackish, spotted with brown; lores,
superciliaries, and neck-collar pale cinnamomeous white: beneath
white, fore neck clear reddish cinnamon; breast and belly covered
with round black spots; chin and middle of belly whitish; tail
black, with transverse bars of pale brown; under wing-coverts and
under surface of wings white; bill red, with the culmen and base
blackish; feet plumbeous: whole length 8·0 inches, wing 3·2, tail
2·8. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ S.E. Brazil.
Dr. Burmeister records the occurrence of this species of Puff-bird near
Tucuman, and it must therefore be placed in our list on his authority.
But it is possible that the species which he met with may have been the
nearly allied _B. striatipectus_ of the Bolivian frontier of Brazil,
which is more likely to extend into Northern Argentina than the true
_B. maculatus_. _B. striatipectus_ (figured and described in Sclater's
'Monograph of the Jacamars and Puff-birds,' pl. xxxiii. p. 101) is very
similar to _B. maculatus_, but has the spots on the belly elongated into
long striations.
It is again possible that the _Bucco_ of Tucuman may be the Paraguayan
_B. chacuru_ of Vieillot, founded upon the "_Chacuru_" of Azara, which
is another species not remotely allied to _B. maculatus_.
Fam. XXVII. CUCULIDÆ, or CUCKOOS.
The Cuckoos form an extensive and rather varied family of zygodactyle
birds with a somewhat wide distribution, being found in all parts of the
world except in the extreme north, where their insect-food would not
be abundantly met with. The true _Cuculi_, so remarkable for their
parasitic habits, are not found in the New World, but several genera of
arboreal Cuckoos (_Coccyzus_, _Piaya_, &c.), and others of terrestrial
habits (_Crotophaga_, _Geococcyx_, and _Saurothera_), are met with,
chiefly in the Neotropical Region, and number altogether some thirty
species. Of these, eight are known to occur within the confines of the
Argentine Republic.