324 Sir W. Jardine on the Habits of Prionites. 



great depth ; but the aperture widens as it proceeds, espe- 

 cially where there is a turning or angle, otherwise it would be 

 impossible to save the two centre feathers of the tail ; at the 

 extremity it is widened to about two feet in diameter, where 

 about the month of May, without the slightest preparation, 

 they deposit three or four dusky cream-coloured eggs, about 

 the size of those of a pigeon. 



" When the young have been hatched they remain in the 

 nest until able to fly; they are supported by the parents, and 

 are fed upon snakes, beetles, berries, &c, and in every nest 

 which I have found there was below the young thousands of 

 large maggots, bred and fed there I suppose by the nauseous 

 fragments of insects left by the young birds. The young are 

 easily tamed, and will eat mutton cut into small pieces, lizards, 

 cock-roaches, &c. The sun appears oppressive to them, and 

 when driven out of doors they strove always to regain the 

 house, where with unerring aim they would dart upon the 

 smallest insect moving upon the ceiling. They are exceedingly 

 acute in sight, nothing that moved passing their observation. 

 They do not assist with the feet in destroying life, but will 

 hold a snake of two or three feet long in their saw-like bill, 

 and continue to strike him against the ground until life is ex- 

 tinct, when they begin at one end and swallow him whole. I 

 have also seen one with a very large lizard swallowed to the 

 head and arms, which apparently could not be then got fur- 

 ther." 



In reply to some additional queries, our correspondent 

 again writes on the 22nd of March : " The Prionites never 

 catch their prey upon the wing like the Flycatchers ; they 

 frequent dark solitary groves, and are fond of being in the vi- 

 cinity of marshy gullies or rivulets ; in such places I have often 

 surprised them, sometimes singly and sometimes in pairs, with 

 the bill and breast dirty as if they had been searching the 

 earth for insects, the moist spots around bearing evident 

 symptoms of having been so examined. When they seize a 

 snake they never let go their hold, as if to renew it more se- 

 curely, but turning the head to the right and to the left keep 

 striking the snake sharply against the branch on which they 

 are perched, for they, in a wild state, never remained on the 

 ground a moment after I saw them catch their food. In 

 speaking of the seizing of cock-roaches on the roof, I must be 

 understood to refer to the young which I had domesticated ; 

 and in such cases the cock-roaches were not flying, but were 

 running along the ceiling; when seized, the Prionites invariably 

 alighted upon the floor, against which it would repeatedly 

 strike the insect before swallowing. The domesticated Prionites 



