On the Locomotor Anatomy of the Blue Coua, Coua Caerulea

Tins is the third in a series of papers on the anatomy of the Cuculidae. The anatomy of at least a third of the genera of cuckoos apparently has never been investigated. Of most of the remaining genera, data have been published on only a few anatomical characters. Beddard (1898: 280-281) and Pycraft (1903: 287) classified the cuckoos whose anatomy was known to them (less than half of the genera). Both authors used leg-muscle formulae and structure of the syrinx. Beddard also used certain features of the pterylosis, whereas Pycraft adopted osteological features in his system. The two systems resulted in considerable disagreement as to the placement and relationship of genera. Garrod and his successors determined the legmuscle formula in all genera available to them; Beddard (op. 1⁄2il., p. 280) gave the formula of Coua as ABXYAm. Except for the following three papers, however, nothing has been published on the detailed anatomy of the lower extremity of cuckoos: Shufeldt, 1886, on G1⁄2ococcyx californianus; Hudson, 1937, Coccyzus americanus; Berger, 1952, Coccyzus erythropthalmus, Crotophaga sulcirostris, and Geococcyx californianus. Garrod (1881: 360), FUrbringer (1888, Plate 23), Gadow (1891: 256), Beddard (op. cit.), and Lowe (1943) mentioned or illustrated the structure of the tendon of M. tensor patagii brevis in cuckoos, but the total wing myology has not heretofore been described. I recently described the pterylosis of Coua caerulea (Berger, 1953). All attempts to classify the Cucnlidae have been unsatisfactory, and I have found it impossible to classify them by compiling data supplied with the several systems proposed. It is obvious that reclassification can be accomplished only after the anatomy, behavior, and ecology of each genus have been studied. This paper is a contribution toward that end.