Part 40

Length 10¹⁄₂ inches, expanse 19¹⁄₂, flexure 6¹⁄₂, tail 2¹⁄₂, rictus 1⁷⁄₁₀, tarsus 2²⁄₁₀, middle toe 1³⁄₁₀.

During the winter we met with this species on one or two occasions, always solitary, wading in the shallows of Crab-pond, and picking. The stomachs of those I obtained, contained a mass of pulverulent matter, which, on being separated in water, seemed to consist largely, if not wholly, of insects. Some soft larvæ, apparently dipterous, and parts of rather large yellow ants, I recognised in one, and in another the remains of Notonectæ.

BARR-FLANKED GAMBET.

Totanus melanoleucus?

Scolopax vocifera, +Wils.+—Aud. pl. 308. Totanus melanoleucus, +Vieill.+

Length 13³⁄₄ inches, expanse 24, flexure 7¹⁄₂, tail 3, rictus 2²⁄₁₀, tarsus 2⁸⁄₁₀, middle toe 1⁶⁄₁₀, hind toe ⁸⁄₁₀.

I know this species only by an individual brought to me at Spanish Town on the 21st of March. In the succeeding month, however, Mr. Hill informed me, that both this and the preceding species were particularly abundant; the numbers of these birds procured by the market sportsmen of Spanish-town and Kingston, being quite extraordinary.

The specimen I obtained does not exactly agree with the descriptions I have read, the breast and sides being marked with zigzags of black, which are large and conspicuous on the flanks. The gizzard, which was muscular, contained a greenish unctuous mass, which showed traces of scales, or else the plated covering of crustacea.

SNIPE.

Gallinago Wilsoni.

Scolopax gallinago, +Wils.+—Aud. pl. 243. Gallinago Wilsoni, +Bonap.+

Length 10³⁄₄ inches, expanse 17, flexure 5¹⁄₄, tail 2¹⁄₈, rictus 2⁵⁄₁₀, tarsus 1⁴⁄₁₀, middle toe 1⁵⁄₁₀.

From November to April this beautiful and delicious bird is rather common in the morasses of Jamaica. In the fetid swamp that borders Bluefields Creek, I have principally met with it, running on the boggy places, some of which are dangerous and difficult of approach. When the tide comes in, however, the wading birds are driven to the edges of the morass, and may then be seen from the high road at Belmont, walking and feeding deliberately in the shallow water, among the slender stems of the black mangroves, not half a stone’s cast from the passers by. When the water stands just above the tarsal joint, the beak can just reach the bottom: and thus it walks deliberately about, momentarily feeling the mud with the sensitive beak-tip, striking with short perpendicular strokes. Now and then we perceive the motion of swallowing. So absorbed is the bird in its occupation, that I have shouted aloud, without its taking any notice; nor when its eye at last caught the motion of my hand, did it more than run, somewhat leisurely, away.

The present season (1846–7,) seems to be more than usually favourable to the influx of the migrant Grallæ from the north. Mr. Hill mentions, in a recent letter, that a friend, R. Wilkie, Esq., bagged twenty-two brace of Snipe in one day’s shooting, in October.

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Other Scolopacidæ that have been observed in Jamaica are the Knit (Tringa Canutus), the Sanderling (Calidris Arenaria), the Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus), and the Little Woodcock (Rusticola minor). These I have not seen, but the first three, Mr. Hill writes me, are plentiful there, this winter. A second species of Woodcock, also, has been reported to have been met with in the island.

+Fam.+—RALLIDÆ. (The Rails.)

CLUCKING-HEN.

Aramus scolopaceus.

Ardea scolopacea, +Gmel.+—Aud. pl. 377. Rallus ardeoïdes, +Spix+. Rallus gigas, +Bonap.+ Aramus scolopaceus, +Vieill.+

Length 25 inches, expanse 39¹⁄₂, flexure 13, tail 5, rictus 3⁹⁄₁₀, bare part of tibia 2, tarsus 4³⁄₁₀, middle-toe 3³⁄₁₀.

Irides hazel; feet dull grey, front of tarsi and toes blackish, polished; beak grey, blackish at tip, tinged with flesh-colour at base; tongue ending in a long horny point; no naked skin on head. General plumage brown, each feather marked through the centre with a pointed pencil of pure white. On the crown the hue is dusky, the centres being merely paler; on the neck the centres are large, and give the prevailing hue; it is on the fore-back and wing-coverts that the centres assume their beautiful form and distinctness. The quills, greater coverts, loins, rump, and tail, are destitute of white centres. On the inner wing-coverts, the breast, belly, and thighs, the brown is dull, and the centres large and well marked; the edges of the feathers loosely webbed. On the cheeks, the markings pale and indistinct; chin impure white. The brown of the back, wings, and tail is of an exceedingly rich deep hue, very silky, and displaying an iridescent glow of purple, like that of shaded silk. Wings short, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth quills, equal. First quill short, sickle-shaped; the outer web attenuated, and the inner dilated, towards the point. Tail broad, rounded, of twelve feathers. Under tail-coverts, large, nearly reaching the tip. Claws obtuse. Beak slender, upper mandible curved, blunt at tip; lower mandible straight; both rounded at edges; the rami of the lower soldered together at about half the length, where the cavity is nearly obliterated. The mandibles do not close accurately. Nostrils perforate.

This curious bird, which, from its anomalous formation, has been a subject of considerable interest to ornithologists, seems to be much better known by its form and plumage, than by its habits. I am glad to be able to give some particulars of its history from my own observation, as well as from that of my friend, Mr. Hill.

The Clucking-hen derives its provincial name from its ordinary voice, when ranging its mountain solitudes. One day in August, I was collecting mosses on the Bluefields Peak, where it is densely covered with tall but slender wood, when Sam called my attention to this bird, which we heard walking at a little distance, around us, crackling the dried sticks and stones, and clucking deliberately with a voice exactly resembling that of a sauntering fowl. I sent the lad round to drive it gently towards me, while I remained still; and presently I saw it walking swiftly to and fro, but a few yards distant. While Sam was pursuing it it rose to wing, and alighted again immediately; but soon ran into the recesses of the woods beyond reach.

The negroes often assured me that a precipitous gully, that cleaves the mountain behind Bluefields, thickly clothed with large timber, abounded with these birds, but it was not until February that I obtained a specimen. At that time the parching drought having wasted the mountain pools, I was told that Clucking-hens might be met with in numbers, at the edge of the woods around the spot where the spring of Bluefields River gushes out of the mountain’s foot. It was said that many were in the habit of selecting high trees in that vicinity as roosting-places. My servants having on several evenings heard the loud cries of these birds proceeding from the spot, I sent them thither one evening to watch. As night drew on, the birds were seen and heard around, and though they could not obtain a shot, they succeeded in getting a more definite knowledge of the individual trees selected.

An evening or two afterwards, I myself went to the spot with them: before sunset the loud cry of one was heard, apparently descending the mountain, but it was not until the grey twilight was fading into darkness that we began to hear them screaming and flying around. The notes were singular; sometimes a series of shrill screams were uttered in succession, then a harsh cry, krau, krau, krau, kreaow. All were loud, sudden, and startling. More than one alighted on a large hog-plum not far off, a tree which they seem to affect, but were too wary to allow of my approaching within gun-shot. Sam, who was watching a hundred yards distant, was more fortunate, for as I was stealthily creeping towards my bird, I heard the report of his piece, and had the satisfaction of learning that he had secured his game, the first specimen of this interesting bird that I had an opportunity of examining.

The ordinary spring-rains were distressingly deficient in 1846; and hence I presume it was, that, through the month of April, several birds of this species were in the habit of frequenting the morasses on each side of the swiftly-flowing Paradise River. Where the bridle-path called the Short Cut crosses the stream, there grow many bushes of Black-Withe, about as large as an ordinary apple-tree; many of these are clothed with a dense and matted drapery of convolvolus so thick as to hide the bush completely. On the very summit of these bushes, the Clucking-hens might often be seen at early day, the tangled creepers affording a support for their broad feet, where they stood and turned without sinking and without embarrassment. They stood boldly erect, as if watching, their dark figures relieved against the sky, in an attitude exactly like that of an Ibis, though they flirted the tail in the manner of a Rail. At brief intervals they uttered a short sharp sound, and sometimes the loud harsh scream, krēaow. On being alarmed, they flew heavily and slowly, with the long legs hanging down, and the neck stretched forward, having a very awkward appearance in the air.

About June, they had again retired to the loftier elevations: at the middle of that month, I used to hear their loud cries at an early hour, on the mountains of Grand Vale and Hampstead, above Content. There was a large pond just within the woods, to which they resorted; for the drought still prevailed. My young friend, who had often seen them there, informed me that they scratch and pick like a fowl.