Like the Ani, the Tinkling feeds on the parasites of cattle. Walking
among them, and mounting on their backs, they pick off the ticks that
so sadly infest the poor beasts, who, as if appreciating the service,
offer not the slightest molestation to their kind friends. I one day
observed a Tinkling thus engaged in feeding her offspring. It was in
the picturesque pasture of Peter’s Vale, where kine were numerous.
Beneath the grateful shade of a spreading mango, in the heat of the
day, a cow was peacefully ruminating. At her feet was the old Tinkling,
walking round and looking up at her, with an intelligent eye. Presently
she espied a tick upon the cow’s belly, and leaping up, seized it in
her beak. Then marching to her sable offspring, who stood looking on
a few yards off, she proceeded to deliver the savoury morsel into the
throat of her son, who had gaped to the utmost stretch of his throat
in eager expectation, even before his mother was near him. This done,
she returned, and again walking round, scrutinized the animal’s body,
but discovering nothing more, flew up on the cow’s back and commenced
an investigation there. Just at this moment something alarmed her,
and both mother and son flew to a distant tree. It was at the same
time, and in the same pasture, that I observed a number of these birds
collected in a large bastard-cedar that overhung a shallow pool; to
which one and another were continually descending, and bathing with
great apparent enjoyment; after which each flew to a sunny part of the
tree, and fluttered and pecked, and ruffled its plumage, that it might
dry smoothly and equally.
Mr. Hill has observed at Fort Dauphin, on the north side of St.
Domingo, the Tinkling feeding in flocks of two hundred or more. The low
grounds around the harbour, consisting of many shallow marly hollows
are overflowed by the tide, after the prevalence of strong north winds,
reducing them to marshes. Many marine _mollusca_, &c. congregating in
these hollows, are left, by the water evaporating, to putrefy: the
vicinity is hence very unhealthy, but hither the Tinklings resort in
large flocks to feed on the decaying animal matters, with which the
mud is filled. And in Jamaica, my friend has witnessed flocks of these
birds equally numerous, winging their way, in March, towards Passage
Fort, an embouchure subject to a similar inundation, on which they
appeared to descend.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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