_Black Bulfinch_, +Rob.+——_Coffee-bird._
_Pyrrhula violacea._
_Loxia violacea_, +Linn.+—Edw. Birds, pl. 82. female?
_Pyrrhula auranticollis_, +Vieill.+ Gal Ois. pl. 55. male.
[73] Length 7³⁄₄ inches, expanse 10¹⁄₂, flexure 3¹⁄₁₀, tail 3,
rictus ⁶⁄₁₀, tarsus ⁹⁄₁₀; middle toe ³⁄₄. Irides dark hazel; beak
and feet black. Male. Plumage black; an arched stripe over the
eye, the chin, throat, and under tail-coverts rust-red: under
wing-coverts yellowish white. Female. Dull mouse-brown; paler
beneath. The red paler and less in extent.
One of those gigantic and hoary cotton trees which are the pride of a
Jamaican forest, or some other tree equally tall, is usually selected
by this Bulfinch, for its abode. At the extremity of an immense
horizontal limb, it builds a nest of rude materials, as large as a
half-bushel measure, the opening being near the bottom. I have seen
the bird enter this monstrous structure, but have had no opportunity
of examining it. Dr. Robinson observes that “the Black Bulfinch builds
a nest as big as a Blackbird’s cage, and by the artful contrivance of
this little volatile, the whole has the simple appearance of a heap of
trash, flung on some bough of a tree, as it were by accident, so that
nobody would suppose it to be anything else.” And in another passage he
records having found the nest at Negril, on the 22nd of April, 1761,
at the summit of a Cabbage-palm, eighty-one feet high, which he had
caused to be felled: “Among the spadices of this tree was fixed, how I
cannot tell, the nest of the Black Bulfinch, made up of various matter;
viz. old cane-trash fibres, silk-cotton, some dry leaves, and at the
bottom many tendrils of climbing shrubs, and a very small species of
_epidendrum_, or green wyth, common in this parish. In it I found one
egg, about an inch long, in colour like that of a common duck, that is,
of a sullied white.” (MSS. i. 72.)
Mr. Hill saw one building in a vale in Clarendon in August. It had
begun a domed nest of dried grass, rather loosely interwoven, then
about as large as a child’s head, but probably it would have been
larger. It was in a fork of an outer limb of a logwood tree at the edge
of a thicket, about seven feet from the ground. The bird went and came,
bringing materials repeatedly, while my friend was watching it.
Sam maintains that he has repeatedly seen it enter large cumulative
nests, on high cotton-trees, having exactly the same appearance as
those of the Black Shrike, (p. 190,) and that he has heard them utter
the same remarkable cry. The suspicion was obvious, considering that
both birds are black, and nearly of one size, that he had confounded
the one with the other. Yet against this, I may state, that he
is perfectly familiar with both species, that he is accustomed
to discriminating observations, and that he asserts that it was
impossible for him to be mistaken in one of the cases. I would add,
that notwithstanding colour and size, the appearance of the two birds
is very different. Yet on the 16th of June, a lad brought me a nest of
small size and cup-like form, which he named as the nest of the “Black
Sparrow,” and described the bird which frequented the nest, and which
he had driven from it when about to take it, as being wholly black,
except the throat which was red; a description which will apply to
no other than this. Moreover, the nest was placed on a coffee-tree,
agreeing with the fact that in some districts the species is named
“Coffee-bird.” It is a rather deep cup, about 2¹⁄₂ inches wide in the
clear, made of very coarse materials, such as dried and half-decayed
leaves of trees, the long broad leaves of rushes or flags, intermingled
with stalks of grass and herbaceous weeds, and with slender roots:
there is a slight lining of thatch-threads, and of blades of grass torn
into narrow strips, and arranged circularly. From such materials, it
may be supposed that the workmanship was loose and slovenly. Three eggs
were found in it, of an elongated form, measuring 1 inch by ¹³⁄₂₀; of
a pale glaucous white, thickly strewn with longitudinal dashes of pale
reddish-brown, confluent at the larger end.
The Black Bulfinch is said to frequent coffee trees, for the purpose of
feeding on the ripe berries. The stomachs of such as I have examined,
contained farinaceous seeds, comminuted into a pudding-like mass.
It has a simple but rather sweet song, which may be imitated by
rapidly pronouncing the syllables _wis, wis, wis, wis, weē_, the last
much protracted. It can hardly be distinguished from the note of
the Black Shrike. Early in the morning in spring, he delights in a
rapid vibratory strain, which I can compare to nothing, for tone and
duration, so well as to the sound produced by one turn of the key in
winding up a musical snuff-box.
One day in April, as I was riding past the cliffs at Cave, on the road
to Savanna-le-Mar, I observed two Cotton-tree Sparrows, whose motions
arrested my attention. They were both males in adult plumage. One
presented himself to the other, opening his beak to the utmost; when
the other seized something in his mouth, and tugged at it; this action
was repeated several times, but whatever was the object pulled at, it
appeared pretty firmly attached to the lower mandible, and refused to
come away. From the evident desire of the one operated on, I conjecture
that it was an application for the removal of some extraneous object
which had accidentally stuck into the flesh of the mouth, and gave
pain or inconvenience. But if so, how interesting an instance of
intelligence communicated; for intelligence, and combined action, there
certainly was. At length the operator, having done what he could, flew
off: but the poor unsuccessful patient, after a few seconds, followed
him, and sought him again in the bush, while I rode on my way.
A male which I shot, and but slightly wounded, displayed much energy,
and some ingenuity, in its persevering efforts to escape, in which,
after being twice captured, it at length succeeded. When I attempted to
seize it, it bit at me fiercely, and pinched my finger so forcibly as
I could not have anticipated. The beak is very powerful, doubtless for
the sake of opening or crushing hard seed-vessels.
I have dissected a female at the end of April, with eggs in the ovary
as large as pigeon-shot, the plumage of which differed from that of
the male, only in the black being _not quite_ so bright. The name
_violacea_, is a strange misnomer, as there is not the slightest tinge
of violet.
Robinson has mentioned the prevalence of these birds on the Liguanea
mountains, in a passage so interesting, that I quote it entire. “In
ascending from Mr. Elletson’s estate called Merryman’s Hill, about
four miles from Hope River plantation, after you get about a mile and
a half beyond the said Merryman’s Hill, the air suddenly turns cool,
and the plants and trees are entirely different from what you observed
before, excepting two or three, which continue all the way up. There
also you hear the Black Bulfinches first begin to whistle, which are
continued all the way up to the top of the mountains; and, indeed, they
are the only birds you hear, for there are hardly any Nightingales;
but they have the Grey-eyed Thrush, whose notes are not much inferior
in sweetness but longer. In these mountains hardly any cockroaches are
seen, but a very small kind. The wood-ant, that destructive insect, is
also a stranger to these mountains.” (MSS. iii. 131.) By the Grey-eyed
Thrush, I suspect he means the Glass-eye: or else the White-eyed
Flycatcher.
In the valuable drawings of the Doctor, he has one carefully executed,
of a bird considerably larger than this, which he calls the Pied
Bulfinch of the mountains, but which I have supposed to be the present
bird in the partial albinism, to which all black birds seem subject.
There are, however, some details which make this rather uncertain. The
whole plumage, including the red gorge, (which is rather crimson than
ferruginous) is studded with large white patches; beside which there
is a large square spot of white, occupying the middle of the wing: the
outmost two tail-feathers on each side are also white, and the forehead
is pale yellow. Should it prove to be distinct, I propose for it the
name of _Pyrrhula Robinsonii_.
* * * * *
To these _Fringilladæ_, I would add, on the authority of Mr. Hill, the
Rose-breasted Grosbeak of Wilson, (_Guiraca Ludoviciana_, +Sw.+).
+Order.+—SCANSORES. (_Climbers._)
+Fam.+—PSITTACIDÆ. (_The Parrots._)