376 Sir W. Jardine on the Ornithology of the Island of Tobago. 



Rallus variegatus, Gmel. (Rail.) s. 

 " Eyes bright scarlet/' is the only note to this species : appa- 

 rently not common. We receive it also from Jamaica. 



Porzana Carolina, Linn. (Water Rail.) n. 

 " Native ; inhabit our marshes." 



Gallinula galeata, Licht. n. 

 Porphyrio martinicus, Gmel. (Purple Gallinule.) n. s. 

 " Native ; inhabits our swamps and marshes among the wild 

 plantain." 



Ardea herodias, Linn. n. 



Egretta cerulea, Linn. (Blue Crane, or Gray Heron.) n. s. 

 " Native : begin to build about the middle of April on small 

 islands detached from mainland. They are abundant on Roxbro 

 Rock in April, May and June, where they build a coarse nest of 

 sticks lined with leaves upon low bushes, which can only be ap- 

 proached with difficulty, surrounded in such a degree by the Cac- 

 tus erectus as to render it almost impossible to penetrate ; lay two 

 eggs of a blue colour. All the cranes are white when first fledged 

 and get blue as they grow old ; I have seen fifty young sitting on 

 the tops of the highest bushes, and these invariably white. The 

 stomachs contained lizards, crabs, cray-fish and worms." 



Ardeola virescens, Linn. (Bittern.) n. s. 



Nycticorax cayenensis, Gmel. (Night Galding, or Crab- 

 catcher.) s. 



" Native. This species also breeds on Roxbro Rock or other 

 detached islands on low thorny bushes often within two or three 

 feet of the ground. It is not so common on the mainland as the 

 others, and when there is not so shy ; I have often been sur- 

 prised by their starting up within ten yards as a hare would in 

 Europe ; whether being busily engaged in satisfying the cravings 

 of nature and not observing my approach, or conceiving itself 

 securely hid among the long grass, I am unable to say ; I think 

 the latter most probable, as I have myself frequently surprised 

 them in this state after making sufficient noise by frequent dis- 

 charges of my gun to warn them of my near approach. The 

 young bird sent I have had alive for three weeks, feeding upon 

 young crabs, thirty of which it would devour in twenty-four 

 hours, of average size, or an inch by an inch and a half without 

 the claws, which are very sharp, and which it generally took care 

 to separate from the body before swallowing. The food was ge- 

 nerally soon disgorged, which showed the power of digestion, 

 being reduced to the consistence of coarse snuff in a very short 

 time. This bird died from neglect, but not until I had satisfied 



