In the woods of the parish of St. David’s these birds are said to be abundant, as also in the mountainous districts of St. Ann’s, St. Dorothy’s, and the Coona-coonas. Swift of foot, if not of wing, the Aramus does not confine itself, however, to one or two localities, but ranges, with rapid sidelong strides, the lonely woods from the mountain-tops to the mangrove morasses of the shore. Solitary and shy, it is a difficult bird to approach, but when obtained is esteemed by some as “the best wildfowl of the country.” “The flesh of this bird,” says Dr. Chamberlaine, “acquires, about the termination of the year, that plumpness, which gives it a claim to be placed in the catalogue of edible birds. It is then esteemed fit for the table, and may be dressed in two ways; viz., in fricassée, or roasted like the Guinea-birds, and smothered, after being cut up, in a rich salade.” Mr. Hill observes of the specimen which came into his possession; “I directed the whole of the muscles on either side of the sternum to be cut out and cooked. I found its flavour indescribably fine, a compound of hare, partridge, and pigeon. The flesh was of peculiarly close and compact texture, and as peculiarly tender.” I would add to these, my own testimony to its excellence.
Of its domestic economy, I know nothing, except that Robinson asserts, that “it lays nine eggs in December.” In February, I found eggs in the ovary of a female, as large as small peas: another, in June, had about half-a-dozen a little larger than peas, about a dozen as large as pigeon-shot, and many small.
Mr. Hill, in a letter written since my return to England, informs me, that “for the last month of the late drought, [summer of 1846] numbers of Clucking Aramuses made their appearance about the river-swamps and marshes in the Caymanas district of this parish. They were a bird almost unknown in these plains. As slugs and snails were very plentiful in these, the only moist places at that time, we perceive what the attraction to this locality was, that brought them so numerously together, beside the desire for water.”
The Clucking-hen was among the birds sent from Cuba by Mr. Mac Leay.
MANGROVE-HEN.[113]
Rallus longirostris.—Lath.
Pl. enl. 849.
[113] Length 15¼ inches, expanse 20½, flexure 5¼, tail 2⁴⁄₁₀, rictus 2⁶⁄₁₀, tarsus 2⁴⁄₁₀, middle toe 2³⁄₁₀. Irides hazel.
The reader shall be introduced to the bird before us, by the delightful pen of my friend, Mr. Hill.