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John
Audubon visits Key West
and paints
the Mangrove Cuckoo
May 1832
- Mangrove Cuckoo painted in Key West
Mangrove
Cuckoo
Above
image from Historical Museum of Southern
Florida
- Audubon images at the
Historical
Museum website were
produced from prints of an original Elephant Folio
belonging to the museum.
http://www.historical-museum.org/collect/audubon/audubon.htm)
See Audubon
House
Audubon
painted this bird in Key West in May, 1832. Lehman's
branch is of a seven-year-apple.
Audubon
writes,
"The
plant, on a twig of which I have represented the
Mangrove Cuckoo, is found on all the Florida keys, and
at times is seen growing in a large patch on the mud
flats that exist between the outer islets and the
mainland. The leaves are thick,glossy above,furred,
and of a dull brown colour beneath."
Additional
portions of what Audubon wrote in his Ornithological
Biography, Volume II, pages 390 to 391 appear
below:
"A
few days after my arrival at Key West in the Floridas,
early in the month of May, Major Glassel of the United
States' Army presented me with a specimen of this
bird, which had been killed by one of the soldiers
belonging to the garrison. I had already observed many
cuckoos in the course of my walks through the tangled
woods of that curious island ; but as they seemed to
be our Common yellow billed species, I passed without
paying much attention to them . The moment this
specimen was presented to me however, I knew that it
was a species unknown to me, and thought, as I have on
many occasions had reason to do, how vigilant the
student of nature ought to be, when placed in a
country previously unvisited by him. The bird was
immediately drawn, and I afterwards shot several
others, all precisely corresponding with
it.
'The
habits of the mangrove Cuckoo I found to be much the
same as those of two well known species. Like them, it
is fond of sucking the eggs of all kinds of birds in
the absence of their owners, and also feeds on fruit
and various kinds of insects. It is, however, more
vigilant and shy, and does not extend its migrations
northward beyond the eastern capes of the Floridas,
appearing, instead, to confine itself mostly to the
islets covered with mangroves, among the sombre
foliage of which trees it usually builds its nest, and
rears its young. . . . "
"The
White-headed Pigeon is frequently robbed of its eggs
by this plunderer, and it is alleged by the fishermen
and wreckers that it destroys the squabs when yet very
young, but I saw no instance of this barbarous
propensity. . . ."
Additional
information about the mangrove cuckoo may be found by
following this link to eNature.com
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