This bird is known as the Black Witch in St. Croix,—a name Mr. Newton supposes to be due to its peculiar call-note, which sounds like que-yuch. Its familiar habits and its grotesque appearance make it universally known. It is a favorite object of attack to the Chickaree Flycatcher, in which encounters
it is apt to lose its presence of mind, and to be forced to make an ignominious retreat.
These birds are said to be attracted by collections of cattle and horses, upon the bodies of which they are often seen to alight, feeding upon the ticks with which they are infested. They are at once familiar and wary, permitting a limited acquaintance, but a too near approach sets the whole flock in motion. It moves in a very peculiar gliding flight. In feeding it is omnivorous; besides insects of all kinds, such as ticks, grasshoppers, beetles, etc., it eats berries of various kinds, lizards, and other kinds of food. It catches insects on the ground by very active jumps, pursues them on the wing, and with its sharp thin bill digs them out in the earth. They hop about and over the bodies of cattle, especially when they are lying down, and when grazing they have been observed clinging to a cow’s tail, picking insects from it as far down even as its extremity.
Mr. Hill states that these birds are downward, not upward, climbers. They enter a tree by alighting on the extremity of some main branch, and reach its centre by creeping along the stem, and seldom penetrate far among the leaves.
The eggs of this species are of a regularly oval shape, equally obtuse at either end. In color they are of a uniform light-blue, with a very slight tinge of green. This is usually covered, but not entirely concealed, by a white cretaceous coating. When fresh, this may readily be rubbed off, but becomes hard and not easily removed. The eggs vary in size from 1.40 to 1.50 inches in length, and in breadth from 1.10 to 1.15 inches.
Family PICIDÆ.—The Woodpeckers.
Char. Outer toe turned backwards permanently, not versatile laterally, the basal portion of the tongue capable of great protrusion.
The preceding characters combined appear to express the essential characters of the Picidæ. In addition, it may be stated that the tongue itself is quite small, flat, and short, acute and horny, usually armed along the edges with recurved hooks. The horns of the hyoid apparatus are generally very long, and curve round the back of the skull, frequently to the base of the bill, playing in a sheath, when the tongue is thrown forward out of the mouth to transfix an insect.
There are twelve tail-feathers, of which the outer is, however, very small and rudimentary (lying concealed between the outer and adjacent feathers), so that only ten are usually counted. The tail is nearly even, or cuneate, never forked, the shafts very rigid in the true Woodpeckers; soft in Picumninæ and Yunginæ. The outer primary is generally very short, or spurious, but not wanting. The bill is chisel or wedge shaped, with sharp angles and ridges and straight culmen; sometimes the culmen is a little curved, in which case it is smoother, and without the ridges. The tarsi in the North American forms are covered with large plates anteriorly, posteriorly with small ones, usually more or less polygonal. The claws are compressed, much curved, very strong and acute.