_Banana Quit._
_Certhiola flaveola._
_Certhia flaveola_, +Linn.+—Edw. 122.
_Nectarinia Antillensis_, +Less.+
_Certhiola flaveola_, +Sundev.+
[20] Length 4¹⁄₈ inches, expanse 6¹⁄₂, flexure 2⁵⁄₁₀, tail 1³⁄₁₀,
rictus ⁵⁄₁₀, tarsus ¹³⁄₂₀, middle toe ⁵⁄₁₀.
Male. Irides dark hazel; beak black, very acute; feet slate-grey:
tongue bifid, penicillate. Upper parts black, except the rump,
which is bright yellow, well-defined. Outer web of the primaries
white at base, which then runs down along the edge; secondaries,
tertials, and tail feathers very slightly tipped with white: on the
outmost tail-feather the white tip is very much increased. Over the
eye a broad arched stripe of white. Throat dull, dark grey. Under
parts yellow, deepest on the breast, divided from the grey by a
transverse line, very pale or white on under tail-coverts. Inner
surface of wings white; edge of shoulder brilliant yellow.
Female, and young of year. Upper parts blackish olive; band
over eye, rump, and whole under parts dull, pale yellow; wing
quills dull black, bases white; tail black, tips whitish. Colours
ill-defined.
Scarcely larger than the average size of the Humming-birds, this
little Creeper is often seen in company with them, probing the same
flowers, and for the same purpose, but in a very different manner.
Instead of hovering in front of each blossom, a task to which his short
wings would be utterly incompetent, the Quit alights on the tree, and
proceeds, in the most business-like manner, to peep into the flowers,
hopping actively from twig to twig, and throwing the body into all
positions, often clinging by the feet with the back downwards, the
better to reach the interior of a blossom, with his curved beak, and
pencilled tongue. The minute insects which are always found in the
interior of flowers, are the object of his search, and the reward of
his perseverance. Unsuspectingly familiar, these birds often resort
to the blossoming shrubs of gardens and yards. A large Moringa tree,
that is all through the year profusely set with fragrant spikes of
bloom, is a favourite resort both of these and the Humming-birds. One
within a few feet of my window, is, while I write this note, being
carefully scrutinised by two active little creatures, that pursue their
examination with a zeal perfectly undisturbed by my looking on, while
the same blossoms are rifled on one side by a minute Humming-bird,
and on the other by that gorgeous butterfly _Urania Sloaneus_: an
interesting association! The Quit often utters a soft, sibilant note,
as it peeps about.
The nest of this bird is very frequently, perhaps usually, built in
those low trees and bushes, from whose twigs depend the paper nests of
the Brown Wasps, and in close contiguity with them. The Grass Quits
are said to manifest the same predilection: it is a singular exercise
of instinct, almost of reason; for the object is doubtless the defence
afforded by the presence of the formidable insects; but upon what terms
the league of amity is contracted between the neighbours, I am ignorant.
It is in the months of May, June, and July, that this Creeper performs
the business of incubation. On the 4th of May, as I was riding to
Savanna le Mar, I observed a Banana Quit with a bit of silk-cotton in
her beak; and on searching, found a nest just commenced in a sage-bush
(_Lantana camara_). The structure, though but a skeleton, was evidently
about to be a dome, and _so far_, was constructed of silk-cotton. Since
then I have seen several completed nests. One now before me, is in the
form of a globe, with a small opening below the side. The walls are
very thick, composed of dry grass, intermixed irregularly with the down
of _Asclepias_. It appeared to have been forsaken, from my having paid
it too much attention. It was fixed between the twigs of a branch of
a _Bauhinia_, that projected over the high road, near Content, in St.
Elizabeths. Another which I found at the end of June, in a sage-bush,
was of the same structure; in this were two eggs, greenish-white,
thickly but indefinitely dashed with reddish, at the larger end.
Robinson states the dimensions thus:—“the length about 3¹⁄₂ eighths,
the diameter about 2¹⁄₂ eighths,” but I find my specimens much larger
than this: accurate measurement giving ⁵⁄₈ inch by rather less than ¹⁄₂
inch.
An exceedingly interesting memoir, from the pen of Mr. Hill, on the
prevalence of domed nests within the tropics, and the connexion of this
fact with electricity, will be found in the Zoological Transactions for
September 14th, 1841.