_Crotophaga Ani._—+Linn.+
Pl. Enl. 102.
[84] Length 14³⁄₄ inches, expanse 17³⁄₄, flexure 6¹⁄₄, tail 7³⁄₄,
rictus 1³⁄₁₀, height of beak ⁹⁄₁₀, tarsus 1⁸⁄₁₀, middle toe 1⁹⁄₁₀.
Irides deep hazel, feet black; beak black, the ridge
semitransparent, furrowed perpendicularly. Plumage black, with
rich purple reflections, most conspicuous on the wing-quills; the
clothing feathers have the disk of an intense black, with a lighter
border, brilliantly iridescent; the borders on the neck are larger
in proportion, and are sometimes brassy.
Intestine 12 inches; two cæca, 1¹⁄₂ inch long, 2 inches from the
cloaca.
The young have not the scaly character of the plumage, nor any
ridge upon the beak.
In all open places, but particularly savannas and pastures which are
occupied by cattle or horses, these birds are seen all day long, and
all the year round. They are perhaps the most common of the birds
of Jamaica. Familiar and impudent, though very wary, they permit a
considerable acquaintance with their manners, while an approach within
a limited distance, in a moment sets the whole flock upon the wing,
with a singular cry, which the negroes please to express by the words,
_going-awa-a-ay_, but which may be as well described, according to
the fancy of the hearer, as _How-d’ye?_ or _Anī_. The appearance of
the bird in its gliding flights is unusual; the body is slender, the
head large, and the beak enormous; and as in flying it assumes a
perfectly straight form, with the long tail in the same line, without
flapping the wings, it takes the aspect, on a side view, rather of a
fish than of a bird. The centre of the upper mandible is hollow, and
the surrounding part is composed of cells of very thin bone, as is the
lower mandible. It thus bears a great resemblance to the beaks of the
Toucans and Hornbills. The belly is thin and lank, and the bird, even
though fat, has always the appearance of meagreness: the shabbiness of
the downy feathers that clothe the belly and the long tibiæ, adds to
this effect. In these particulars, as well as in general aspect and
manners, the Blackbird displays a strong affinity to the Cuckoos and
Toucans; indeed, if I may judge from a living _Rhamphastos carinatus_
which was some time in my possession, it seems nearer to the latter
than to the former.
The food of our Blackbird, though consisting mainly of insects, is
not confined to them. We usually find the stomach distended with
caterpillars, moths, grasshoppers, beetles, and other insects, to such
a degree that we wonder how the mass could have been forced in. But I
have found these contents mixed up with, and stained by the berries of
the snake-withe; and in July I have found the stomach crammed with the
berries of the fiddle-wood, (_Cytharaxylon_,) which had stained the
whole inner surface of a bright crimson. Flocks of these birds were
at that time feeding on the glowing clusters profusely ripe upon the
trees. Stationary insects are the staple food; to obtain which, they
hop about grassy places, and are often seen to jump, or to run eagerly
at their prey; on which occasions the long tail, continuing the given
motion after the body has stopped, is thrown forward in an odd manner,
sometimes nearly turning the bird head over heels. It is probably to
protect the eyes from the stalks of weeds and blades of grass in these
headlong leaps, that the projecting brows are furnished with a row
of short but very stiff overhanging bristles; but what purpose was
served by the high and thin knife-blade of a beak, I was ignorant, till
informed by Mr. Hill, who observes that it “enables the bird to open
out the soft earth, and seek for its insect food; it also facilitates
its access to the vermin imbedded in the long close hair of animals. I
am assured,” he adds, “that if a patch of cows’ dung be examined after
Crotophagas have been searching for the larvæ of insects, it will be
found furrowed as if a miniature plough had passed through it.”
The form of this organ has given occasion, in Hayti, where also it is
common, to the appellation of “bout de tabac,” that is “bowl of tobacco
pipe;” it is also called there _Judeo_.
The name _Crotophaga_, (tick-eater,) is no misnomer, as has been,
without foundation, asserted by some who never saw the living bird.
Almost every one in Jamaica is aware that the Savanna Blackbird, as
well as the Grakle, feeds on the parasites of cattle. I made particular
inquiries about this soon after my arrival, and was assured of the fact
by persons who had witnessed it multitudes of times, and who could not
“mistake” the Blackbird for the Grakle, their whole form, voice, and
motions, being different.
Afterwards, however, I had repeated opportunities of personal
observation on this point. One day I noticed a cow lying down, around
which were four or five Blackbirds, hopping on and off her back, and
eagerly picking the insects from her body; which service seemed in no
wise unpleasing to her. I have also seen them leaping up on cows when
grazing; and, on another occasion, jumping to and from a horse’s back;
and my lad Sam has repeatedly observed them clinging to a cow’s tail,
and picking insects from it, as far down as the terminal tuft. Had
cattle been pastured near where I resided, I should doubtless have had
many more ocular demonstrations: but the evidence is amply sufficient.
In some of these cases, the occurrence was close to me, so that there
was no possibility of deception, especially as, being aware of the
conflicting statement, I looked with the more interest to satisfy
myself.
But stationary insects are not the only prey of the Crotophaga; in
December, I have seen little groups of them engaged in the evenings,
leaping up from the pasture about a yard into the air, doubtless after
flying insects, which they seemed to catch. One day in March as I sat
at dinner, my attention was arrested by what seemed to be a green
bird chased by several Crotophagas, near the top of a lofty tree at
some distance, I presently saw that it was a very large lepidopterous
insect; it flew over the woods about a quarter of a mile before I lost
sight of it, when it appeared to alight on the top of a tree. The birds
did not pursue the chase far. I have seen one with a dragon-fly in its
beak, which it had just caught, but it may have been while resting. At
another time I saw that a Blackbird had actually made prey of one of
our little nimble lizards (_Anolis_). These circumstances show, that
like the Toucans, the Ani is to some extent omnivorous.
Though its usual mode of progression on the ground is by hopping, or
rather bounding, the feet being lifted together, the Blackbird is seen
occasionally to _run_ in a headlong manner for a short distance, moving
the feet alternately. He is fond of sitting in the morning sun on a low
tree with the wings expanded; remaining there perfectly still for a
considerable time. In the heat of the day, in July and August, many may
be seen in the lowland plains, sitting on the fences and logwood hedges
with the beaks wide open, as if gasping for air; they then forget
their usual loquacity and wariness. Often two or three will sit in the
centre of a thick bush, overhung with a matted drapery of convolvolus,
whence they utter their singular cry in a calling tone, as if they were
playing at hide-and-seek, and requiring their fellows to come and find
them.
The statement that the Blackbird builds in company, forming an
immense nest of basket-work by the united labours of the flock, is
universally maintained by the inhabitants of the colony. It is said to
be usually on a high tree, where many parents bring forth and educate
a common family. Mr. Hill, whose statements in Jamaican Ornithology
are worthy of unlimited confidence, observes: “Some half-a-dozen
of them together build but one nest, which is large and capacious
enough for them to resort to in common, and to rear their young ones
together. They are extremely attentive to the business of incubation,
and never quit the nest, while sitting, without covering the eggs with
leaves, to preserve them at an equal temperature.” The only instance
in which I ever met with a nest, while it is not conclusive, is
rather in favour of this opinion than the opposite. In July I found a
Blackbirds’ nest in a Bastard Cedar (_Guazuma_); it was a rather large
mass of interwoven twigs lined with leaves. _Eight_ eggs were in the
nest, and the shells of _many more_ were also in it, and scattered
beneath the tree. The eggs were about as large as a pullet’s, very
regularly oval, of a greenish blue, but covered with a coating of
white chalky substance, which was much scratched and eroded on them
all, and which was displaced with little force. On being broken, the
interior was peculiar; the glaire was less tenacious than usual, but
more jelly-like, yet at the same time thinner in consistence; but
what surprised me was, that in each egg this glaire filled at least
three-fourths of the whole space, while the yolk, flattened in form,
not larger in diameter than a coat-button-mould, and about twice as
thick, was adhering to one side and end. It was pale, and resembled in
appearance that of a hen’s egg, when just turned by boiling. I examined
several, and found all alike.
I close this account with some pleasing notes of the species by Mr.
Hill. “Though the Savanna Blackbird is classed among the scansorial or
climbing tribe of birds, and has the yoke-formed foot,—like another
class of the Cuckoo tribe among us, of which we have four or five
different kinds,—it is generally a downward, not an upward climber.
It enters a tree by alighting on the extremity of some main branch,
and gains the centre of the foliage by creeping along the stem, and
searching for its insect food. Unlike, however, our Cuckoos, which are
solitary-feeding birds, it does not range from stem to stem, and search
the tree through. The Blackbirds, moving in flocks of half-dozens,
tens, and twelves, seldom penetrate far among the leaves. They glance
along the branches rapidly, and silently quit the tree they have
visited, by dropping one by one on some inviting spot on the green
sward under them, or start away suddenly, the whole possé together, to
some near-by thicket, to which one among them generally leads with that
peculiar shrill and screaming cry that distinguishes them from every
other bird of the field.
“These Savanna Blackbirds are favourites with me. Other winged
wanderers have their season, but these are the tenants of the field all
the year round. Their life is in the sunshine. Wherever there are open
lands in tillage or pasture, with intermingled trees and shrubs, there
these social birds frequent:—always familiar and seemingly fearless,
but never omitting to set their sentinel watchmen to sound their cry
when any one obtrudes nearer upon them than to a certain space within
their social haunts.
“After a passing fall of rain, one of our sudden mid-day thunder
showers for instance, when the full burst of sunshine, bright and
fierce, breaks again on the freshened landscape;—the first bird seen
creeping out from the thicket to dry his wings, and regain the fields,
is the Savanna Blackbird. The Mocking-bird, ready as he is with his
song, to gladden the landscape once more, is seldom before the shrill
Blackbird, in breaking the hush that succeeds the overpast shower.
_Que-yuch, que-yuch, que-yuch_ is heard from some embowered clump not
far off, and a little stream of Blackbirds, with their long tails
and short gliding wings outstretched in flight, are seen straggling
away to some spot, where insect-life is stirring, in the fresh, damp,
and exuberant earth. The sun is levelling its slant beam along the
plains, and the sea-breeze is breathing fresh and fragrant with a
sense of reviving moisture from the afternoon showers, _que-yuch,
que-yuch, que-yuch_ is heard again, hastily and anxiously repeated;
and the little birds are seen scrambling into the hedge-rows, and the
Blackbirds are pushing from the outer limbs of the solitary thicket,
from whence they sounded their cry of alarm, to gain the inward covert
of the leaves. A hawk with silent stealth is skimming along the
bordering woodland, gliding occasionally downward to the lesser bushes
in the Savanna. The tocsin of the Blackbird, however, has warned the
whole field, and not a voice is heard, and not a wing is stirring.
“In the hot and sultry days when the dews have ceased to fall, and all
vegetation is parched and languid, the Blackbirds are seen wending
their way at an early hour of the afternoon to the riverside, trooping
in little parties. They have found some spot where an uprooted tree
has grounded in the shallow stream. Here they are perched, some tail
upward, drinking from the gliding waters below, some silent and
drooping, some pluming themselves, and some in the sands that have
shoaled about the embedded trunk of the tree, washing in the little
half-inch depths of water. They will continue here till sunset, when
they will start off laggingly, the signal being first given by some one
of the flock, who has announced, that it is time to seek their coverts
for the night, with the still peculiar cry of _que-yuch_.”
I am inclined to attach very little importance to the wrinkles on the
beak as indicating specific difference: these, as well as the form and
size of the organ, varying considerably in individuals from the same
locality; the result, I have no doubt, of age.
+Order.+—GYRANTES. (_Circlers._)
+Fam.+—COLUMBADÆ. (_The pigeons._)