In April the Judy begins to arrange the domestic economy of the season;
and if the cradle of his young is not so elaborate a structure as
some others, it makes up in quantity what it lacks in quality. In
the latter part of this month, my negro lads, being on a shooting
excursion, observed on Bluefields Mountain, a domed nest, made
apparently of dried leaves, about as large as a child’s head, suspended
from the under side of a pendent branch of a tall tree. They watched
awhile to discover the owner, and presently saw the female of the
present species enter, and re-emerge, while the male was hopping
about the tree. A day or two after, I myself observed a similar nest,
similarly situated, beneath one of the pendent branches of a tall
cotton-tree, at Cave, on the road to Savanna-le-Mar. It appeared to
be composed of loose trash, rather a ragged structure, but evidently
domed, with the entrance near the bottom. Both the male and female
were playing and calling around it, and the latter at length went
in. On the 11th of May, passing that way again, I observed this nest
to be considerably larger, not less than a foot in diameter, as well
as I could judge from the great elevation; its outline, however, was
still ragged. I estimated the height of the nest to be between seventy
and eighty feet, though on the lowest branch of the tree, and that
pendent. Yet this Ceiba had not attained the giant dimensions common
to the species. A few days after this, Sam saw a third nest, formed
and placed exactly as in the former cases, so that I concluded this
to be the usual economy. A fourth example, however, showed me, that
the lofty elevation is not indispensable, as also that I had not yet
seen the largest specimens of the nests. On a branch of a small cedar
(_Cedrela_) that overhangs the high-road at Cave, I had noticed early
in June what appeared to be a heap of straw, tossed up by a fork and
lodged there, which the action of the weather had in some degree
smoothed at the top, the ends trailing downwards. One day, however,
as I was looking up at it, I saw the brown female of this species
emerge from the bottom, and presently return, entering at a narrow
hole beneath. As it was not more than twelve or fifteen feet from the
ground, I immediately sent my lads to climb the tree, and cut the
branch, which they accordingly brought me, with the huge nest attached.
The boys reported that it was empty, and that it had four entrances;
but on examination, I found that every one of these was merely a hollow
in the immense walls, produced by the receding of one part of the loose
materials from another. While they held it up in the position it had
occupied on the tree, I searched beneath for the true entrance; which,
when I had found it, I had much difficulty to find again, so concealed
was it by the long draggling ends of the mass. On inserting my finger,
however, I felt the soft and warm plumage of young birds, and pulled
out three, almost fully fledged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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