_Centurus radiolatus._—+Wagl.+
Edw. 244.
[79] Length 11 inches, expanse 17³⁄₄, flexure 5¹⁄₂, tail 3⁷⁄₁₀,
rictus 1¹³⁄₂₀, tarsus 1²⁄₁₀, middle toe 1³⁄₁₀, versatile toe 1³⁄₁₀,
nearly. Irides bright hazel, or scarlet.
This species greatly resembles the Red-bellied Woodpecker of Wilson,
(_C. Carolinus_,) from which it may be distinguished by the plumage of
the rump and tail-coverts being barred as the back, and the tail being
black, with the two middle feathers crossed by narrow bars of white on
their inner vanes, and the outmost feathers spotted with white on the
outer edge.
This is among the commonest of Jamaican birds, being abundant in all
situations, from the shores to the summits of the mountains. His loud
screams as he darts along from one dead tree to another, perpetually
betray his proximity even before we see him. Like the rest of his
tribe, his flight consists of a series of undulations, or rather a
succession of arcs of a circle, performed by alternate strokes and
closures of the wings. Though rapid and rushing in its character,
it does not extend to long distances, nor does it appear capable of
protraction, the wings having the shortness and hollowness which mark
a subordinate power of flight. Occasionally he alights on a horizontal
branch, but if so, it is lengthwise, not across, as other birds
perch; neither does he stand up on the toes, elevating the tarsi, but
squats down close to the wood, clinging rather than perching. Far more
usually, however, he flies direct to the trunk, on whose perpendicular
side he alights as suddenly as if he had been stuck there, and either
commences rapping with his powerful beak, or hops upward till he
finds a more promising scene of operations. If he wishes to descend,
which he does but seldom, it is backward and in a diagonal direction;
or sometimes he turns, so as to come down sideways, but it is never
more than a short distance, and is performed so awkwardly, and in
so scrambling a manner, as to indicate that he is not formed for
descending.
His food is not confined to boring larvæ; the large red ants, so common
in the woods, I have found numerous in his stomach; and at other
times, hard strong seeds enclosed in a scarlet pulpy skin. In March
we sometimes find him filled with the white pulp and oval seeds of
the sour-sop. He is said to feed on the beautiful cherries (_Cordia
collococca_) which in brilliant bunches are ripe at the same season;
and I have seen him engaged in picking off the pretty crimson berries,
that hang like clusters of miniature grapes from the fiddlewood
(_Cytharaxylon_). Sometimes he extracts the pulp of the orange, having
cut a hole through the rind; and mangoes he eats in the autumn. He does
damage to the sugar-cane, by chiselling away the woody exterior, and
sucking out the juice, and gets shot for this feat, by the owners.
I have never seen the nest, but I have seen the bird go in and out of a
round hole, far up the stipe of a dead cocoa-nut palm, where doubtless
it was nesting.
+Fam.+—CUCULIDÆ.—(_The Cuckoos._)