70



Notes on some Jamaican Birds.



going on, it might be suspected that they were but one remove

better than the familiar Cuckoo proper, whose propensity for

shirking maternal cares is so well known and, but for this interest,

one might infer that, having found another of the family so

minded as to build for herself and to incubate, the opportunity

is seized to add to the proposed complement of eggs. There is,


I think, some evidence of hesitation for, on one occasion, I dis¬

covered an undoubted Savannah Blackbird’s egg in an undoubted

Mocking Bird’s partially-built nest scarcely beyond one’s natural

reach.


It is well the bird’s egg is so coated with calcareous matter,

for the scratches and raspings tell the rough treatment it receives

from this most clumsy-footed creature. Indeed, so strongly is the

egg put together that I have had several dropped, say thirty feet,

on to a lawn without fracture ! It is the ungainly bird’s clumsiness

that makes him so conspicuous an object; he cannot perch with

a balance until a see-saw exercise has been gone through. Were

not the arched culmen of the upper mandible as good as wanting

in the naked coffee-coloured and open-eyed chick, one might

conclude the exaggeration was of use as a lever in helping them

from the hard egg-shell.


At the risk of life, limb (and law) it was possible to keep a

brood of these birds under observation ; they were raised and

lowered pulley wise in a cage, and our hopes they would not be

neglected were realized. Seeds, berries and insects are the Tick-

birds chief diet, which also includes a lizard. There is also no

reason why a fully-grown mouse should not be relished, but it

surely shows a lack of discernment to present such to young

birds; this animal, a lizard and a very large grasshopper were all

found tramped underfoot by the caged brood. The morsels were

far too large. Elsewhere than in Jamaica ‘ home remedies’ are

fearful and wonderful, but I think mouse- tea for whooping-cough

beats all. I was presently asked by one, who proved to have

been a spectator, for the mouse ! Asking its use, I was assured it

was when made into tea a certain cure for the complaint named.


Whilst on the bird’s bill of fare, it seems to me more than

likely very many small snakes, reputedly scarce in Jamaica, find

their way to C. ani's digestive organs. It is wonderful how



