402 ALECTORIDES. 



Avithiu gunshot, standing in the same place, bobbing its head up and down like a 

 Sandpiper. On taking wing it utters a loud cluck, and if a tree is in the neighbor- 

 hood generally alights on it, or, if not, usually alights in some thick part of the 

 marsh, and is not easily started again. On the St. John's it feeds principally on a 

 species of Natlca, which is extremely abundant, and also on the small unios. Its 

 ordinary note — which this bird seems to be very fond of uttering — is said to be 

 very disagreeable, and to resemble that of the Peacock. Besides this it makes a 

 number of other sounds, all of the most unharmonious description. Incubation is 

 said to begin in February. The few nests Dr. Bryant saw were made on low willows. 

 In Spring Garden Lake he saw four on one small island. The number of eggs is 

 unusually large, fifteen having been taken from one nest. From the unsuspicious 

 nature of this bird, and the fact that it betrays its whereabouts by loud cries, Dr. 

 Bryant predicts its extermination as soon as that part of Florida is settled. 



Mr. Boardman informs me that this bird is more generally known in Florida as 

 the "Limitkin," and it is so called from the peculiarity of its walking, its movements 

 resembling the motions of a lame person. Ft is a very tame and iinsuspicious bird, 

 and will not infrequently answer a call, and thus betray its position to the sports- 

 man. It is of nocturnal habit, moving about in the night-time, and during the hours 

 of darkness is much more noisy than in the daytime. 



In Januiica, according to Gosse, this bird is generally known as the ''Clucking- 

 hen," from its ordinary note when undisturbed in its solitudes. He mentions meet- 

 ing one in August, in a wood on Bluefields Peak, where it was walking at a little 

 distance from him, and clucking deliberately, with a voice exactly resembling that of 

 a sauntering Fowl. A precijiitous gully behind the Bluefields abounded with this 

 species, and in February, a parching drought having wasted the mountain pools, this 

 bird was driven in numbers to the springs gushing out at the foot of the mountain. 

 He was informed that it was in the habit of roosting in the high trees in that neigh- 

 borhood, and went one evening to the spot to observe. Just as the twilight was 

 fading into darkness, he began to hear them screaming and flying around. Their 

 notes were sometimes a series of shrill screams uttered in succession, then a harsh 

 cry, like krait, krau, krau, kreaow. All were loud, sudden, and startling. Several 

 alighted on a large tree not far from him, but w^ere too wary for him to approach 

 Avithin gunshot ; one, however, was secured by his servant. 



During the drought several of these birds frequented the morasses near Paradise 

 liiver, and from the summit of a matted mass of convolvulus covering a large bush, 

 he had an opportunity to see and to Avatcli their singular movements. The tangled 

 creepers afforded a support for their broad feet, and they stood boldly erect, as if 

 watching, in an attitude exactly like that of an Ibis, though flirting their tails in the 

 manner of a Rail. At brief intervals they uttered a short, sharp sound, and some- 

 times loud, harsh screams of kreaow. When alarmed they flew heavily and slowly, 

 with their long legs hanging down, and with outstretched neck, making a very awk- 

 ward appearance. Gosse was informed that they scratch and pick in the manner of 

 a Common Fowl. The stomach of one that he examined Avas stuffed with small 

 water-snails, divested of the shells and filling the oesophagus almost to the fauces. 

 The piercing cries uttered at the approach of night Avere not heard at any other time, 

 and during the day this bird commonly emits only its deliberate clucking. Gosse 

 did not regard it as a nocturnal bird, but considered these cries as only indicative of 

 preparations for repose, as they soon relapse into silence. 



Being so SAvift of foot, this bird, in Jamaica, does not confine itself merely to a 

 fsAV localities, but ranges the lonely woods from the mangrove morasses of the sea- 



