430 NUUTII AMERICAN BIRDS. 



afforded by the presence of those formidable insects, tlioimh iijidn wliat terms 

 of amity this defensive alliance is kept does not appear. 



These Oeepers incubate during the months of May, .Inne, and .luly. ( )n 

 the 4th of jMay, Mr. Gosse observed one with a bit of "silk-cotton ' in licr 

 beak, and found the skeleton of the nest just commenced in a bush of tliu Lm- 

 tana camara. It was evidently to be of dome shape, and so far had been con- 

 structed entirely of silk-cotton. The completed nests are made in the fnrni 

 of a globe, with a small opening below the side. Tlie Myalls are very tliick, 

 composed of dry grasses intermixed irregularly witii the down of asclejiias. 

 One of these nests was fixed between the twigs of a branch nf a BauMnia 

 projecting over a highway. Another, found towards the end of June, was 

 built in a bush of Lmitana, and of the same structure. It contained two 

 eggs, greenish-white, thickly but indefinitely dashed wilh reddish at the 

 larger end. Mr. Gosse quotes a Mr. ivobinson as giving tiicir dimensions at 

 .44: by .31 of an inch, while his own specimens are much larger than this, 

 measuring .63 by nearly .50. Two eggs of C. Jlavcohi, IVoni Jamaica, in my 

 cabinet, measure, .68 by .51 and .68 by .49 of an inch. In one the ground 

 is a didl white, so generally and tlnckly covered with minute but conilucnt 

 dots of reddi.sh-brown as to imjiart a jiinkish tinge to the wluile egg. In tlic 

 other the ground is a dull white, sparingly marked with blotihes of lirown 

 over about three fourths of its surface, but at the larger end covered with a 

 crown of larger and cf)nHuent blotches of subdued purjile and dark umber, 

 intermingled with a few lines of a darker liue, almost black. 



Two eggs of C. neirtimi, from St. Croix, are of a more rounded-oval sluape, 

 and measure .69 by .45 and .65 by .44 of an inch. They hav(^ a dull wiute 

 ground, but this is so uniformly and generally covered with conlhient red- 

 dish-brown markings as to be nowhere very distinct. 



The St. Croix species is called the Sugar-Bird in tliat island, from its habit 

 of entering the CAuing-houses, through the barred windows, probably attracted 

 thither by the swarms of flies. It' is a very familiar species, haunting gar- 

 dens, and often entering houses, and never manifesting any alarni. Tt keeps 

 in pairs, and breeds from March to August. Mr. Newton states that it builds 

 a domed and often pensile nest, with a small porch, or iient-house roof, over 

 the entrance, generally at the extremity of a leafy bougli. The nest is gen- 

 erally very untidy on the outside, and is composed of coarse grass and cot- 

 ton, with feathers on the inside. It deposits its eggs befoii^ the completion 

 of the nest, "rather to the discomfiture of the oologist, who delays inserting 

 his finger into the structure wliile he sees one or both of tlic birds busy with 

 a tuft of gi'ass or cotton in their liills, until at last he (inds their eggs already 

 hatched." Mr. Xewton observed one instance in which two broods were 

 reared in the same nest, with only an interval of ten days between the time 

 the young left it and the laying of an egg. 



