_Tyrannus caudifasciatus._—+D’Orbigny.+
[49] Length 8³⁄₄ inches, expanse 13, tail 3⁴⁄₁₀, flexure 4¹⁄₈,
rictus 1⁷⁄₂₀, tarsus 1, middle toe ⁸⁄₁₀.
Irides hazel. Intestine short, about 4¹⁄₂ inches, cæca rudimentary:
stomach slightly muscular.
D’Orbigny in the Ornithology of Ramon de la Sagra’s work on Cuba, has
described and figured this species, which in its appearance and manners
very much resembles the King-bird of the United States, as it does
also the preceding species. It is, however, a permanent inhabitant of
Jamaica. In Westmoreland and St. Elizabeth’s, the name Petchary is
applied indifferently to this and the grey species, as the equivalent
term _Pitirre_, in Cuba seems to indicate any species of _Tyrannus_.
Vieillot has described a closely allied bird, if not identical with
ours, by the name of _Tyr. Pipiri_. But in the neighbourhood of Spanish
Town, this species is distinguished from the grey, to which the name
Petchary is there confined, by the term Loggerhead, which, with us to
leeward, is applied to the rufous species, _T. Crinitus_. It is well
to be aware of this confusion of local names, or we may be liable to
predicate of one species, what is true only of another.
It is one of the commonest birds of Jamaica, both in the lowlands
and the hilly districts, nor is it rare even at the elevation of the
Bluefields Peaks. It seems to delight in the fruit and timber-trees,
which are thickly planted in the pens, and around the homesteads
of the southern coast, and everywhere, in fact, where insects are
numerous. The larger kinds of insects form the prey of this species
as of the former. I have seen one pursue with several doublings a
large _Cetonia_, which, however, having escaped, the bird instantly
snapped up a _Cicada_ of still greater bulk, and began to beat it to
kill it, while the poor insect sung shrilly as it was being devoured.
It frequently resorts to a tree that overhangs still water, for the
purpose of hawking after the dragon-flies that skim over the surface.
The size of these insects, and their projecting wings, would seem to
make the swallowing of them a matter of some difficulty; for I have
noticed that the bird jerks the insect round by little and little,
without letting it go, till the head points inward, when it is
swallowed more readily. Mr. Hill has noticed a very interesting trait
in this bird, so frequently as to be properly called a habit. It will
play with a large beetle as a cat with a mouse, no doubt after its
appetite has been sated. Sitting on a twig, and holding the beetle in
its beak, it suddenly permits it to drop, then plunging downward, it
gets beneath the insect before it has had time to reach the ground,
and turning upward catches it as it falls. It sometimes continues this
sport a quarter of an hour.
In the winter season, the seeds of the Tropic-birch (_Bursera_) appear
to constitute a large portion of the food of our Tyrannidæ. One day
in January, I observed two Petcharies on a birch-tree, fluttering in
an unusual manner, and stood to watch their proceedings. I found they
were feeding on the ripe berries, which they plucked off in a singular
manner. Each bird sitting on a twig, seized a berry in his beak, then
throwing back his head till he was in a perpendicular position, tugged
till the stalk gave way, his wings being expanded, and vibrated all
the while to prevent him from falling. Yet, even at this season, they
contrive to fill their craws with insects; for one which I dissected
the next day, had its stomach filled with hymenoptera and coleoptera,
among which were the fragments of a most brilliant little _Buprestis_,
the possession of which I envied it. I observed that the stomach
was protuberant below the sternum, as in the cuckoos. At this early
season, the time of incubation was near; for the ovary of this specimen
contained an egg as large as a small marble; and my lad who shot it,
told me that this one and its mate were toying and pursuing each
other around a tall manchioneel-tree, on one of whose upper limbs he
discovered a nest nearly finished.
The nest consists of a loose basket of dry stems of yam, and tendrils
of passion-flower, lined with a slight cup of horse-hair and fibres
from palmetto-leaves. Four or five eggs are laid, of a drab hue or
reddish-white, with blotches of reddish-brown and bluish irregularly
intermixed, but chiefly arranged in the form of a crown around the
larger end.
In the month of September they become, in common with their grey
congeners, a mere mass of fat, and are at this time in much request
for the table. They are supposed to acquire this fatness by feeding on
the honey-bees, which then resort in great numbers to the magnificent
bloom-spike of the cabbage-palm. Hither the Petchary also resorts, and
sitting on a frond captures the industrious insects as they approach.
At this time the large and branching spike of blossom, projecting
and then curving gracefully downwards, and looking as if exquisitely
moulded in white wax, is a very beautiful object; and the pollen from
the flowers is diffused so abundantly, that the ground beneath the
tree, appears exactly as if it had been visited by a snow-shower.
This appears to be the species alluded to by Robinson in the following
note. “They [the Tyrants, _Baristi_, as he calls them,] are all very
bold birds, especially the largest species called the Loggerhead, who
beats all kinds of birds indiscriminately; he is also the harbinger
of the morning, constantly giving notice of the approach of day by
his cry. When he is beating a Carrion Crow or other birds, he snaps
his bill very frequently; he is a very active, bold bird, and feeds
upon insects and lizards. I have seen him give chase to a lizard
round the trunk of a small tree, flying in circles with surprising
activity. In beating any large bird, both cock and hen (if both are
in the way,) join in the quarrel or scuffle.”[50] In these assaults,
the intrepid Petchary does not _always_ come off scathless. “And
here,” says Robinson in speaking of the Red-tailed Buzzard, “I
cannot help recollecting an unhappy though deserved ill-fate, which
sometimes befalls the large Loggerhead. Everybody is acquainted with
the pugnacious nature of this little bird; for he attacks and buffets
every large bird that happens to fall in his way, snapping his beak and
pursuing him with great violence; and among others this great Hawk is
often disturbed and beaten by him.
[50] Robinson’s MSS. ii. 102.
“At Chestervale, in the cultivated ground, it is common for this Hawk
to perch upon the top of some dry tree. This situation he chooses that
he may the better view the ground beneath, and observe if a rat or
other animal should make its appearance. While he sits here upon the
watch, ’tis ten to one but he is attacked by the Loggerhead, whom he
suffers to buffet and beat him with great patience, without offering
to stir once from his place; till, his assailant being quite tired
and spent with the violence of his exercise, inadvertently sits down
on some twig not far distant from his passive, and, as he may think,
inoffensive enemy. That enemy, however, now keeps his eye fixed on him,
and no sooner does he begin to preen his feathers, or look carelessly
about him, than down pounces the Hawk suddenly upon him, seizes the
unwary bird in his talons, and devours him.”[51]
[51] MSS.
The courage of the Tyrants in defence of their nests, is well known;
but it seems at times to become almost a mania. The late proprietor of
Mount Airy, in his daily walks about the estate, was attacked with such
virulence by a Petchary that was nesting, the bird actually pecking his
head, that he was compelled to take out a stick in defence, with which
he at length struck down the too valiant bird. Dogs seem especially
obnoxious to it, and this not only during incubation; at any time a
passing dog is likely to be assaulted by this fierce bird, and if he
be so unfortunate as to have any sore on his body, that is sure to be
the point of attack. One of my youths, a veracious lad, narrated to me
the following circumstance, to which he was witness. A large dog was
following his mistress through Mount Edgecumbe Pen, when a Petchary
flew virulently at him: on the shoulder of the dog was a large running
sore; to this the bird directed his attention: suspending himself
over the wound, he clutched with his extended feet as if he wished to
seize it thus, snapping angrily with his beak; then suddenly he pecked
the wound, while the dog howled in agony. The bird, however, repeated
its assaults exactly in the same manner, until the blood ran down the
shoulder from the wound; the dog all the while seemingly cowed and
afraid to run, but howling most piteously, and turning round to snap at
the bird. The woman was at some distance ahead, and took no notice;
and the war continued until my informant left. The Petchary continued,
in this case, on the wing; but frequently he alights on the dog to peck
him.
Both this and the Grey Petchary, when excited, open and shut the
coronal feathers alternately. When opened, the appearance is as if a
deep furrow had been ploughed through the plumage of the head, the
sides of which are vividly coloured. Occasionally this furrow is
opened in death, and remains so: one or two birds being brought me in
this condition, when my acquaintance with the species was slight, I
suspected that some of the feathers had been plucked out, in order to
enhance the value of the specimens by displaying the gayer colour. A
male of the present species, which I wounded one day in April, on my
taking it up, began to scream passionately, and to open and shut the
crown, biting ferociously; another from the same tree, probably his
mate, attracted by his cries, pursued me, endeavouring to peck me:
and when repelled, continued to gaze, stretching its neck anxiously,
whenever the screams were repeated.
In the quotation from Robinson’s MSS., page 180, the early habits of
this bird were noticed. On the same subject, Mr. Hill writes me, “I
know no bird-voice, not excepting ‘the cock’s shrill clarion,’ that is
earlier heard than the _pi-pi-pihou_ of the Loggerhead Tyrant. In my
neighbourhood several of the yards are planted with cocoa-nut trees. On
a very lofty cocoa palm to the north of me, a pair of Grey Petcharies
annually nestle in the month of April. On half a dozen less elevated
ones to the west of me, several Loggerheads take up their locations
as early as January, and build their nests there. I say January, as
that is their time for nestling, but I see them there ordinarily by
Christmas, and I hear the clang and clatter of their voices before;
but it is not till the turn of the year, that they unfailingly chant
every morning their peculiar reveillé; singing _pi-pi-pihou, pi-pi—,
pipi-pi-pihou_, for an hour from the firing of the Port Royal gun, a
little before five, till the sun is well up:—they then descend to some
of the lower vegetation round about, and alter their chant from the
more musical _pipi-pihou_, to a sort of scream of _pi-i-i-i-i-hou_,
for the space of about twenty minutes more; when they cease for the
day. It was this remarkable obtrusion of their chant upon the ear,
before day-break, in the shortest of our days, that led me to the
conclusion that they were the _Tyrannus matutinus_ of Vieillot. Buffon,
on remarking that no bird is earlier than the Black-headed Pipiri,
as he designates it, for he is assured that it is heard as soon as
the day begins to dawn, gives two or three striking notes from St.
Domingo correspondents, in which this fact is particularly recorded.
A Mr. Deshayes in his communication writes, that “the Pipiri seen in
the forest, and in ruinate lands, and in cultivated spots, thrives
everywhere; but more especially the Yellow-crested Pipiri, which is
the more multiplied species; that one delights in places that are
inhabited. In winter they draw near to houses, and as the temperature
of this season in these climates, has much the character of spring-time
in France, it would seem that the prevailing coolness and freshness
fills them with life and gaiety. Indeed never are they seen so full of
clatter, and so cheerful as in the months of November and December;
they then tease each other, and dash along somersetting (_voltigent_)
one after the other, as a sort of prelude to love-making.’” My friend
again writes me on the 30th of April:—“As I lay fever-wake on the
morning of the 27th, I heard again the Loggerhead Tyrant singing most
musically his day-dawn salutation of _pipi-pihou_. My sister, who
listened to the early songster too, thinks that +op+, +pp+, +p+, +q+,
is his morning lesson; and it is, perhaps, the closest resemblance to
his chant. He is a scholar after the fashion of modern Infant schools.
His alphabet and multiplication-table are a song. He repeated his
lesson the following morning, but I have slept so soundly since, that
I cannot say whether he has continued to wake to his learning at the
firing of the Port Royal gun.”