Fam.—RALLIDÆ. (The Rails.)
CLUCKING-HEN.[111]
Aramus scolopaceus.
| Ardea scolopacea, | Gmel.—Aud. pl. 377. |
| Rallus ardeoïdes, | Spix. |
| Rallus gigas, | Bonap. |
| Aramus scolopaceus, | Vieill. |
[111] Length 25 inches, expanse 39½, flexure 13, tail 5, rictus 3⁹⁄₁₀, bare part of tibia 2, tarsus 4³⁄₁₀, middle-toe 3³⁄₁₀.
Irides hazel; feet dull grey, front of tarsi and toes blackish, polished; beak grey, blackish at tip, tinged with flesh-colour at base; tongue ending in a long horny point; no naked skin on head. General plumage brown, each feather marked through the centre with a pointed pencil of pure white. On the crown the hue is dusky, the centres being merely paler; on the neck the centres are large, and give the prevailing hue; it is on the fore-back and wing-coverts that the centres assume their beautiful form and distinctness. The quills, greater coverts, loins, rump, and tail, are destitute of white centres. On the inner wing-coverts, the breast, belly, and thighs, the brown is dull, and the centres large and well marked; the edges of the feathers loosely webbed. On the cheeks, the markings pale and indistinct; chin impure white. The brown of the back, wings, and tail is of an exceedingly rich deep hue, very silky, and displaying an iridescent glow of purple, like that of shaded silk. Wings short, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth quills, equal. First quill short, sickle-shaped; the outer web attenuated, and the inner dilated, towards the point. Tail broad, rounded, of twelve feathers. Under tail-coverts, large, nearly reaching the tip. Claws obtuse. Beak slender, upper mandible curved, blunt at tip; lower mandible straight; both rounded at edges; the rami of the lower soldered together at about half the length, where the cavity is nearly obliterated. The mandibles do not close accurately. Nostrils perforate.
This curious bird, which, from its anomalous formation, has been a subject of considerable interest to ornithologists, seems to be much better known by its form and plumage, than by its habits. I am glad to be able to give some particulars of its history from my own observation, as well as from that of my friend, Mr. Hill.
The Clucking-hen derives its provincial name from its ordinary voice, when ranging its mountain solitudes. One day in August, I was collecting mosses on the Bluefields Peak, where it is densely covered with tall but slender wood, when Sam called my attention to this bird, which we heard walking at a little distance, around us, crackling the dried sticks and stones, and clucking deliberately with a voice exactly resembling that of a sauntering fowl. I sent the lad round to drive it gently towards me, while I remained still; and presently I saw it walking swiftly to and fro, but a few yards distant. While Sam was pursuing it it rose to wing, and alighted again immediately; but soon ran into the recesses of the woods beyond reach.
The negroes often assured me that a precipitous gully, that cleaves the mountain behind Bluefields, thickly clothed with large timber, abounded with these birds, but it was not until February that I obtained a specimen. At that time the parching drought having wasted the mountain pools, I was told that Clucking-hens might be met with in numbers, at the edge of the woods around the spot where the spring of Bluefields River gushes out of the mountain’s foot. It was said that many were in the habit of selecting high trees in that vicinity as roosting-places. My servants having on several evenings heard the loud cries of these birds proceeding from the spot, I sent them thither one evening to watch. As night drew on, the birds were seen and heard around, and though they could not obtain a shot, they succeeded in getting a more definite knowledge of the individual trees selected.
An evening or two afterwards, I myself went to the spot with them: before sunset the loud cry of one was heard, apparently descending the mountain, but it was not until the grey twilight was fading into darkness that we began to hear them screaming and flying around. The notes were singular; sometimes a series of shrill screams were uttered in succession, then a harsh cry, krau, krau, krau, kreaow. All were loud, sudden, and startling. More than one alighted on a large hog-plum not far off, a tree which they seem to affect, but were too wary to allow of my approaching within gun-shot. Sam, who was watching a hundred yards distant, was more fortunate, for as I was stealthily creeping towards my bird, I heard the report of his piece, and had the satisfaction of learning that he had secured his game, the first specimen of this interesting bird that I had an opportunity of examining.