Lifc-Historics of the Booby and the Mau-o'-lVar Bird. 149 



West Indian waters, though it of course has many nesting resorts in this 

 region. Gundlach's' notes on the bird in Cuba appear to be based on Audu- 

 bon's observations. Audubon writes- that he found the man-o'-war bird 

 breeding in the Florida Keys " about the middle of May '" and even de- 

 scribes its manner of collecting nest-building material; but it is difficult to 

 make his account agree with the known habits of the species. It is true 

 that in May the man-o'-war bird appears in large numbers on the Florida 

 Keys, but such flocks contain young of the year and their presence is due 

 to post-breeding wandering. Audubon states that the man-o'-war bird lays 

 2 or 3 eggs, ''more frequently the latter number," whereas there is abun- 

 dant testimony to prove that the usual number is i. Furthermore, the young 

 are covered with snowy white, not " yellowish white " down, as Audubon 

 writes. 



Equally important with these errors of commission is Audubon's failure 

 to mention the man-o'-war bird's remarkable habit of inflating its gular 

 pouch to the size of a toy balloon. This is far too conspicuous a feature of 

 the mating and early nesting season' to have escaped notice and mention. 



What the nests were that Audubon mistook for those of Fregata aqnila 

 I do not pretend to say ; but it is reasonably certain that his identification of 

 them was incorrect. 



THE C.-^Y VERDE COLONY. 



The luxuriant growth of cactus among the sea-grapes in which the man- 

 o'-war birds nested added to the difficulty with which these thickly branched, 

 shrubby trees were penetrated, and we did not attempt to make a census of 

 the number of birds of this species which were breeding on Cay Verde. We 

 estimated, however, that there were between 200 and 300 pairs. 



The nesting season seemed to be about as far advanced as it was with 

 the booby, most of the nests containing half-grown young, but some held 

 fresh eggs, while a few birds of the year were already on the wing. Their 

 manner of nesting prevented us from studying the nesting habits of the 

 man-o'-war bird with the ease which attended our observations of the 

 boobies; and I have but little to record concerning the biography of this 

 species. The specimens collected, however, present some interesting facts 

 (apparently not recorded hitherto) in regard to the development of plumage 

 in the man-o'-war bird. 



THE .\DULT BIRDS. 



The man-o'-war birds awoke at about the same time as the boobies, and at 

 -h 20 a. m. were sailing over their rookery. From this time until they 



'Joum. fur Om., 1857, p. 239. 

 "Om. Biog., HI, p. 495. 



'See W. K. Fisher. Birds of Laysan and the Leeward Islands, Hawaiian Group, 

 U. S. Fish Comm. Bull., 190,^, p. 30, pi. viii, figs. 39, 40. 



