298 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



rather elongated at one end, measuring 1 by f of an inch ; bluish or greyish- 

 white, splashed with dashes and spots of umber mixed with pale brown, 

 sometimes confluent into a blotch on and round the large end. 



67. Coturniculus passerinus. ( C. tixicrus, Gosse.) The grass pink is 

 not an uncommon bird in the savannas and grass lands near Spanish Town. 

 The nest is a small, rudely made cup, fixed very low, sometimes on the 

 ground, in tufts of grass roots. The eggs are 4, oval-pointed at one end, and 

 rather large forthesize of the bird, measuring 13-16ths by 10-16thsof an inch, 

 bluish-white, splashed sparsely with spots and irregular dashes of burnt 

 sienna intermixed with pale-brown spots on the large end. The song of the 

 grass pink is, chi-chi-cree, several times softly and rapidly repeated. The 

 cry of tichichro-cro-cro, attributed to it, is no doubt the call of the Ortygo- 

 metra jamaicensis, which, after the breeding season, resorts to the same 

 coverts as the grass pinks. 



68. Crithagra braziliensis. I have had no opportunity of noting the 

 nidification of the "Canary." I am, however, informed that the nest and 

 eggs are like those of the Goldfinch of Europe. The Crithagra was, until the 

 last 3 or 4 years, almost confined to the neighborhood of Hodge's Pen, in St. 

 Elizabeth, to which it was first introduced ; but it is gradually extending its 

 range, and is now found at Long Hill, in the same parish, 30 miles from 

 Hodge's Pen. 



ICTERID^E. 



58. Qitiscalus crassirostris. The Grakles select the tallest trees, clothed 

 with the most dense foliage, in the neighborhood of their intended location, 

 whether it be the lofty bamboo, genip-hog plum or black cherry, or the 

 more lowly mango, lignum vitse, or capparis, and occupy it in companies of 

 6 or more, often as many as 20 pairs, allowing no other bird to encroach upon 

 their chosen domain. Each pair, however, builds a separate nest, which is 

 about 8 inches across, coarsely constructed outwardly with the stems of 

 trailing plants, (in this district "generally that of Cassus Cissioides,) with a 

 compact cup of 4 inches diameter and 3 inches depth, of dry stems of con- 

 volvuli and other trailing plants, fibres and fibrous roots, on a bed of decay- 

 ing leaves. The eggs are 3 4, variable in form and size, round, oval or elon- 

 gated, measuring from 1^ to If by f of an inch. They are of a dull metallic 

 green, (rapidly discoloriug when blown,) marbled with irregular sinuated lines 

 and scratches, with a few blotches and splashes of dark sepia, intermixed 

 with pale slaty spots ; sometimes the lines and spots are nearly black. On 

 all the breeding trees in the neighborhood of Spanish town, and there are 

 many, the nests remain undisturbed from year to year, the birds at other 

 times roosting elsewhere in large flocks, and only resorting to these trees in 

 the breeding season ; at this time they are usually so silent and cautious, that 

 a person may pass and repass the trees many times before detecting the 

 nests. The usual food of the Grakle is insects, worms, lizards, and the eggs 

 and young of other bird3 ; the larger prey he clutches with one foot and 

 flies with it to his nestling or some tree near by, and standing on one leg, 

 presses his prize with the other on the branch, and tears it to pieces, feeding 

 his young with or devouring the portions, as he tears them away. The attack 

 on the nests of the larger birds, is often made by parties, and so fiercely, that 

 the nests are torn and the materials scattered away. I lately saw a young 

 Grakle with a small, brown tree lizard in his beak, and presently the parent bird 

 brought another which he also took, but for a long time he kept running, in 

 great tribulation, backwards and forwards with the two dead lizards in his 

 beak, not knowing what to do with them, until after the lapse of more than 

 an hour the old bird returned and assisted in tearing them to pieces. 



When I first saw a Grakle rubbing himself with an over-ripe lime, I was 



[Nov. 



