BAHAMA BLACK-FACED GRASSQUIT 157 



The breeding season, at least in the northern Bahamas, evidently 

 begins in March and continues well into the summer. It is likely that 

 more than one brood is raised j^early. 



Dr. Virgilio Biaggi, Jr., wrote Mr. Bent that the Puerto Rican race, 

 Tiaris hicolor omissa, builds its nest in the center of low bushes, and 

 he believes the nest is used only once. A nest discovered on May 25, 

 1949, was constructed in about 3 days. Beginning on May 28, four 

 eggs were laid on successive daj^s. While the last egg was laid the 

 morning of May 31, incubation started the previous afternoon. The 

 female alone incubates. All four eggs hatched during the night or 

 early in the morning of June 12. Both parents fed the young, which 

 left the nest on June 23. The abandoned nest contained a great 

 quantity of fecal matter. 



Eggs. — The set of eggs laid by the Bahama grassquit varies from 

 two to five, sets of three and four being most common. The eggs in 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology are ovate and slightly glossy. 

 They are grayish white, speckled and spotted with "auburn," Brussels 

 brown, argus brown, and "cinnamon brown," with underlying spots 

 of pale drab-gray and "mouse gray." On some the specldings are 

 scattered over the entu-e egg with a concentration toward the large 

 end; others have confluent spots forming a cap over the large end 

 with only scattered dots over the rest of the egg. The measurements 

 of 33 eggs average 17.3 by 12.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the 

 fom- extremes measm-e 18.3 by 13.9, 17.9 by I4.I, 16.2 by 12.3, and 

 16.5 by 12.0 millimeters. 



Plumages. — Ridgway (1901) describes the juvenal plumage of the 

 Bahama black-faced grassquit as "Similar to adult female but rather 

 paler," He adds that "Immatm'e males are variously intermediate 

 in plmnage between adult males and females," implying that they 

 show more or less black on the head and under parts. 



Food. — The food of this grassquit consists almost entirely of seeds 

 of grasses and weeds. Wetmore (1927) states of the subspecies 

 inhabiting Puerto Rico {T. h. omissa) that seeds "are usually swallowed 

 enth'e and ground up in the muscular gizzard with the sand which is 

 eaten for that pm'pose, but may occasionally be hulled neatly before 

 being swallowed." Danforth (1936), writing of the same race, notes 

 that it occasionally eats insects. 



Behavior. — The normal flight is rapid and dkect, but rarely sus- 

 tained for more than a few yards. In the breeding season I have 

 frequently seen the adult male perform what may be described as a 

 com'tship flight. This is much slower than normal flight, and is 

 accompanied by trembling wings and a puffed-up appearance with 

 the head drawn back, while the bird sings repeatedly. 



