102



S. Porter—A West Indian Diary



The Tody seems to have but feeble flight and sits in one place,

taking short excursions after flying insects as they pass. These frail

little birds are remarkable for the fact that they burrow into the

soil to make their nests. Usually the nest is made in a bank like that

of a Kingfisher, though sometimes boxes, which have been used for

growing plants and have been left full of soil, are used. It is amazing

that this tiny creature, only the size of a Humming Bird, should have

the strength to tunnel into hard soil.


It is a pity that this bird is not common, for they must do a great

deal of good by killing an immense amount of abnoxious insects,

such as mosquitos, etc. Todies are such peculiar little birds that no

description can give an adequate portrayal of their unique appearance.

Sitting still on a leafy branch they are very difficult to distinguish

from the foliage. A very striking feature is the pale grey eye, which

seems to turn round almost like a chameleon’s.


The Jamaican Woodpecker (Centurus radiolatus ).—This extra¬

ordinarily handsome bird is common in Jamaica. I saw it many times

in the woods and also had the good fortune to see a pair nesting in

the stem of a dead palm-tree in the garden of a house situated in a

remote district in the parish of Trelawney. These birds, I was told,

had chiselled out a hole near the summit of the trunk, but were driven

from it by a pair of Caribbean Martins (.Pronge dominicensis), whole

crowds of these birds coming to assist the original pair in mobbing

and driving the Woodpeckers from their lawful home, until at last

these latter birds were forced to quit their nesting hole, and start

a fresh one a few feet below their original home now tenanted by the

Martins. After this the two species of birds lived together amicably

as neighbours and reared their respective families. The head of the

palm-tree in which the birds had made their home had been blown

off in a hurricane and the trunk stood like a lone telegraph pole in the

centre of the garden.


The birds were quite tame, and it was very amusing to watch them

endeavouring to entice the young ones out of the nesting hole. One

of the parents would arrive with a beak full of insects, alight on the

trunk some feet below the hole, quickly run up to the entrance, show

them the food, calling all the while, and gradually back away



