Sir W, Jardine on the Habits 0/ Crotophaga. 165 



ners attentively watched. It is exceedingly wild and bites 

 wickedly, and frequently draws blood with its claws. It rea- 

 dily devours grasshoppers (if alive), these constituting their 

 principal food. In a wild state I have known them devour 

 tadpoles with avidity in dry weather, and I have often been 

 informed that they have been seen to pick the ticks from the 

 stock in the pastures : this I will not contradict, but never saw ; 

 I watched them for upwards of an hour yesterday, and the re- 

 sult was, that three of these birds took their station around an 

 ox, within three or four feet distance, sitting on the alert, 

 hopping gradually forward with every motion of the ox as he 

 browsed along, and springing on every insect that started be- 

 fore him. 



^^On looking at this curious bird a question naturally presents 

 itself to the beholder, What can be the use of such a singularly 

 sharp rigid bill ? and although at first sight we are apt to pro- 

 nounce this bill grotesque and deformed, we shall find on more 

 mature consideration that the superintending care and provi- 

 dence of an all-wise Creator is manifest here as in all his 

 works, for no other conformation could have suited his pur- 

 poses so well. As they have been destined like other species 

 to labour for their food, and as it has more particularly been 

 their lot to search for it upon the ground and in a climate 

 where the foliage is thick and luxuriant, the manifestation of 

 the supreme wisdom is apparent when he views with what 

 ease the Crotophaga can pounce upon his prey through the 

 thickest foliage : by lowering the head the knife-ridged bill is 

 so brought in contact with the grass, &c., as to throw the 

 herbage to each side, enabling the bird to pursue the insect 

 without the slightest resistance. 



'^ They are in no ways anxious to be exalted, for they seldom 

 choose a high tree when there is a suitable shrub in the vici- 

 nity ; and although there are great numbers now in every 

 estate where cultivation has been extended, yet they seldom 

 fly in flocks of more than twenty, and even to that extent they 

 may scarcely be called flocks, like the Rooks of Europe, or the 

 Yellow-tail {Cassicus cristatus) of Tobago; but seem rather to 

 follow each other in short flights from shrub to shrub, sound- 

 ing their note as they proceed, which is a whistle of two syl- 



