_Progne Dominicensis._
_Hirundo Dominicensis_, +Linn.+
_Hirundo albiventris_, +Vieill.+ Ois. Am. pl. 28.
[17] Length 8 inches, expanse 15¹⁄₄, flexure 5¹⁄₂, tail 2, rictus
¹⁹⁄₂₀, beak along culmen ⁵⁄₁₀, tarsus ¹³⁄₂₀, middle toe ¹³⁄₂₀, hind
toe ⁵⁄₁₀, outer toe slighter longer than inner.
Irides dark hazel.
As closely allied to the Purple Martin, in manners, as in form and
colouring, I long mistook the present bird for that well-known species,
as I think others have done also. The white belly is, however, a
sufficient mark of distinction. It is very common, at least in the
lowlands and inferior mountain ranges, during the summer; some remain
with us through the winter, but as there is a very marked diminution
of their numbers, I conclude that a large body of them migrate on the
approach of that season, probably to Central America. About the end of
March we see them in great numbers, assembled early in the morning on
the topmost branches of the lofty cotton trees, which at that season
are leafless. On these they crowd so closely, side by side, that I have
known five to be killed at one discharge. In the autumn we observe
exactly the same habit. Perhaps we may trace some analogy here to
those periodical congregations of other species which are known to be
connected with migration.
It is a remarkable fact, that of the seven species of Swallows and
Swifts which summer in North America, all of which are stated to
migrate to the southward before winter, not one should have occurred to
me in Jamaica. Although every day through the winter months, my almost
undivided attention was given to birds; and though from August to April
about thirteen hundred specimens of birds fell into my hands, more
than one thousand of which were shot by myself and my servants, not a
single individual of a North American species was observed among them.
I simply state the fact, leaving any one to draw his own inferences.
At the same time, I should observe, that Mr. Hill thinks that
_Acanthylis pelasgia_ visits Jamaica in its periodical migration.
Referring to an incident which he had mentioned to me before, he says,
“The migratory _hirundines_, whose squadrons moving in circles, I gave
you a sketch of in March last, as seen by me at that time passing
over us from south to north, (and I have observed them yearly either
in that month or in April,) I conclude to be flocks of _pelasgia_
on their passage to their summer homes northward, after wintering
in the tropics. The circular movement of the migratory retinue; the
direction of their flight; their known wintering on the neighbouring
intertropical shores; their association at all times in multitudinous
numbers; and the cry with which they announce their passage, as they
leisurely course round,—_tsippee, tsippee, tsippee_, seem to me so many
identifications of this species.”
The Blue Swallow has the same propensity to bring up his family in
darkness, as his purple brother. The stipe of an old palm, whose porous
centre decays, while the iron fibres of the exterior remain strong,
is his ordinary resort. At the beginning of April, I observed several
pairs flying in and out of holes, bored I suppose by the Woodpecker, in
the stipe of a dead Cocoa-nut still tall and erect, but a mere leafless
post, tottering in the breeze and ready to fall. At the middle of May,
Sam observed several pairs entering a round hole, about two inches in
diameter, beneath the eaves of Belmont house.
Near the end of June, when on my way in a coasting boat from Bluefields
to Kingston, I was lying wind-bound in Starvegut Bay. There the
inhospitable shore is strewn with immense fragments of limestone rock,
honey-combed and fretted into holes, through which the surf breaking
furiously, finds vent in perpendicular jets and spouts of water, or in
columns of spray resembling steam from an engine-pipe, accompanied with
crashing roar. Yet I observed with interest, that the Blue Swallows
were frequenting these rocks, and I noticed one repeatedly going in
and out of a small hole near the summit of a rugged mass, separated
from the shore, and completely isolated by the boiling surf. Lansdown
Guilding, in some notes on the Zoology of the Caribbean Islands, (Zool.
Jour. III. 408,) observes, “We have but few of this family in St.
Vincents: among them is a Swallow, which roosts, and I believe builds,
in the rock of the sea-shore. It is curious,” he adds, “to observe the
bird in calm weather skimming patiently along the sea in search of
insects, evidently ignorant of the fact that they are confined to fresh
water, and do not sport on the surface of salt waters.” I cannot agree,
however, with this accomplished naturalist here: that the Swallows do
occasionally skim over the sea, is undeniable; and that gnats and other
minute insects are also in the habit of frequenting the salt water,
though not in such numbers as over the fresh ponds and rivers, is no
less certain, at least in Jamaica.
+Fam.+—TODIDÆ.—(_The Todies._)