CLUCKING-HEN. 



363 



found its flavour indescribably fine, a compound of 

 hare, partridge, and pigeon. The flesh was of 

 peculiarly close and compact texture, and as pe- 

 culiarly tender." I would add to these, my own 

 testimony to its excellence. 



Of its domestic economy, I know nothing, ex- 

 cept that Robinson asserts, that " it lays nine eggs 

 in December." In February, I found eggs in the 

 ovary of a female, as large as small peas : another, 

 in June, had about half-a-dozen a little larger than 

 peas, about a dozen as large as pigeon-shot, and 

 many small. 



Mr. Hill, in a letter written since my return to 

 England, informs me, that " for the last month 

 of the late drought, [summer of 1846] numbers 

 of Clucking Aramuses made their appearance about 

 the river-swamps and marshes in the Caymanas 

 district of this parish. They were a bird almost 

 unknown in these plains. As slugs and snails were 

 very plentiful in these, the only moist places at 

 that time, we perceive what the attraction to this 

 locality was, that brought them so numerously to- 

 gether, beside the desire for water." 



The Clucking-hen was among the birds sent from 

 Cuba by Mr. Mac Leay. 



