110



S. Porter—A West Indian Diary



before I left the island in disgust were a few specimens of the Black¬

faced Grass Finch or March’s Black-faced Grass Quit. One misses these

little birds, which are so common in Jamaica and whose call can be

heard on every hand, both in the town and country. The few birds

I saw were excessively wary.


Another characteristic bird of the inland mountainous district is

fhe Palm Chat ( Dulus dominicus), a bird allied to the Tanagers, but

very unlike them in habits. It builds amazing nests at the base of the

fronds of the Royal Palms, between the stems of the seed pods and the

base of the fronds. These huge nests are the work of many birds and

are communal, many birds inhabiting the same nest. These nests

are a very conspicuous feature of the landscape. This is one of the

very few birds that can be called at all common. Why the natives have

not killed this species out I can’t imagine, unless they have some

superstition about it, but one cannot imagine superstition standing

in the way of a Haitian when it came to a matter of food. Another

bird which is occasionally seen is the Palm Crow (Corvus palmarum),

a very small-sized Crow with a peculiar flight which lives in the wooded

parts near the native plantations. It is not common and is not found

near villages or towns.


A bird which I was astounded to see in Haiti in flocks of con¬

siderable size was the African Black and Yellow Weaver (Textor

cucullatus). These birds are common and one sees in the country

large trees stripped of their leaves with many hundreds of nests

attached to the branches. One of the most remarkable sights in

bird life I ever saw was a large flock of these birds all seeming to be

flying in formation, each with a very long piece of palm frond in its

beak trailing far behind the bird. These the birds were taking to

weave their nests with. How this Weaver first arrived in Haiti will

ever be a mystery, but possibly it was brought there by the French

when they owned the country many years ago.


In the days when the peaceable caribs inhabited Hispaniola and

when the vast forests covered the mountains a small Parrot of the

“ Amazon ” family commonly known as Salle’s Amazon ( Amazona

ventralis) was found in enormous numbers all over the two, now modern,

republics of Haiti and San Domingo. With the coming of the Spanish,



