RAINBIRD. 273 



out the juice, and gets shot for this feat, by the 

 owners. 



I have never seen the nest, but I have seen the 

 bird go in and out of a round hole, far up the stipe 

 of a dead cocoa-nut palm, w^here doubtless it was 

 nesting. 



Fam.— CUCULIDiE.— (r/ie Cuckoos.) 

 RAINBIRD.* 



Saurothera vetula. 



Cuculus vetula, Linn. — PI. Enl. 772. 



Saurotliera vetula, Vieill. — Gal. Ois. 38. 



Interesting to myself, as being the first bird 

 that I obtained in Jamaica, I mention the fact, be- 

 cause the mode in which I procured it is illustra- 

 tive of one of its most remarkable characteristics. 

 A day or two after my arrival, I was taking a 

 ramble with a little lad, who was delighted to be 

 my pioneer and assistant ; we had climbed a hill 

 which was clothed with large timber, so densely 

 matted with lianes and briers as to be almost im- 

 penetrable. We had, however, got into the thickest 

 of it, when a large and handsome bird with a long 

 tail, beautifully barred with black and white, ap- 



* Length 15^ inches, expanse 14-5^, flexure 4^, tail 6 1, rictus 2^, 

 tarsus 1 <pfy, middle toe 1^. Intestine 16 inches, very tender ; two caeca, 

 about 2 inches long. Irides hazel; orbits scarlet. The sexes exactly 

 alike. 



N 5 



