356 ORALLY. RALLID^E. 



lecting mosses on the Bluefields Peak, where it 

 is densely covered with tall but slender wood, when 

 Sam called my attention to this bird, which we 

 heard walking at a little distance, around us, crack- 

 ling the dried sticks and stones, and clucking delibe- 

 rately with a voice exactly resembling that of a saun- 

 tering fowl. I sent the lad round to drive it gently 

 towards me, while I remained still ; and presently 

 I saw it walking swiftly to and fro, but a few 

 yards distant. While Sam was pursuing it it rose 

 to wing, and alighted again immediately ; but soon 

 ran into the recesses of the woods beyond reach. 



The negroes often assured me that a precipit- 

 ous gully, that cleaves the mountain behind Blue- 

 fields, thickly clothed with large timber, abounded 

 with these birds, but it was not until February 

 that I obtained a specimen. At that time the 

 parching drought having wasted the mountain pools, 

 I was told that Clucking-hens might be met with 

 in numbers, at the edge of the woods around 

 the spot where the spring of Bluefields River gushes 

 out of the mountain's foot. It was said that many 



marked ; the edges of the feathers loosely webbed. On the cheeks, the 

 markings pale and indistinct ; chin impure white. The brown of the 

 back, wings, and tail is of an exceedingly rich deep hue, very silky, and 

 displaying an iridescent glow of purple, like that of shaded silk. Wings 

 short, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth quills, equal. First quill short, sickle- 

 shaped ; the outer web attenuated, and the inner dilated, towards the 

 point. Tail broad, rounded, of twelve feathers. Under tail-coverts, 

 large, nearly reaching the tip. Claws obtuse. Beak slender, upper man- 

 dible curved, blunt at tip ; lower mandible straight ; both rounded at 

 edges ; the rami of the lower soldered together at about half the length, 

 where the cavity is nearly obliterated. The mandibles do not close accu- 

 rately. Nostrils perforate. 



