164 Sir W. Jardine on the Habits of Crotophaga. 



Before I commenced this memorandum regarding the habits 

 of the Crotophaga I entertained a very different opinion as to 

 the facihty of procuring them from what I do at this moment ; 

 and it may be worth relating here for your information^ that, 

 with the view of complying with your request^ I went out on 

 two successive days to procure perfect specimens to send home 

 in spirits ; but, strange as it may appear, out of fourteen birds 

 which I shot I could only lift three, and those so much de- 

 stroyed, as to render them useless for the purposes for which 

 they were intended. From this I wish to convey that if the 

 bird is not actually shot dead, its propensity to hide is such, 

 that if there is a cane-piece, a vine, or grass plot within reach, 

 the last expiring effort is to hide its head, and you will the 

 more readily conceive our difficulty by this information, that 

 what we call comparatively clear pastures may nevertheless 

 (from the rapidity of the vegetation, where we can only per- 

 haps afford to clear them once yearly) be covered with prickly 

 creeping vines of all descriptions, three or four feet high ; and 

 it often happens, that in consequence of the hurry to procure 

 the specimens just shot, the ornithological sportsman finds 

 himself lacerated from the foot to the face, being lanced with 

 a thousand hooked prickles at the same moment ; it was in 

 such a situation that I found myself on the 26th of September 

 last, under the oppressive heat of a vertical sun. 



" The young also evince great dexterity in hopping from 

 branch to branch; for long ere they are able for flight they 

 leave the nests, and may frequently be seen perched on the 

 top of a shrub or thicket of vines with a congregation of adult 

 birds ; but as the parents retire from the intruder by flight, 

 the young birds prepare by long and rapid leaps to get to the 

 ground, and in such a situation suffice it to say that you might 

 calculate with as much certainty upon the capture of a rat in 

 full possession of all its faculties as upon that of the young Cro- 

 tophaga, Only two days ago, in a comparatively clear pasture, 

 where there was nothing but grass about twelve inches long, I 

 handed one to my servant, who by some means or other let it 

 slip through his fingers in my presence, and notwithstanding 

 our united exertions and that of a third part}? the bird made 

 its escape. Since, another has been procured and the man- 



