The bill of the
chattering-crow is black, and the upper bill is round, bending downwards
like a hawk's bill, rising up in a ridge almost semi-circular, and very
sharp, both at the ridge or convexity, and at the point or extremity: the
lower bill is flat and shuts even with it. I was told by a Portuguese
here that their negro wenches make love potions with these birds. And the
Portuguese care not to let them have any of these birds, to keep them
from that superstition: as I found one afternoon when I was in the fields
with a padre and another, who shot two of them, and hid them, as they
said, for that reason. They are not good food, but their bills are
reckoned a good antidote against poison.
The bill-birds are so called by the English from their monstrous bills,
which are as big as their bodies. I saw none of these birds here, but saw
several of the breasts flayed off and dried for the beauty of them; the
feathers were curiously coloured with red, yellow, and orange-colour.
The curresos (called here mackeraws) are such as are in the Bay of
Campeachy.
Turtledoves are in great plenty here; and two sorts of wild pigeons; the
one sort blackish, the other a light grey: the blackish or dark grey are
the bigger, being as large as our wood-quests, or wood-pigeons in
England.
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