308 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



been frightened ofE the nest. According to Henry Palmer, who visited the 

 island a few weelis later in 1891, this is a very common occurrence, but the 

 young were so scarce we considered the accidental demonstration mentioned 

 above as sufficient evidence of the heartless trait. 



On the west coast of Mexico, Mr. H. H. Bailey (1906) found them 

 nesting on Isabella Island, of which he writes : 



The nests on the island were placed on the top of the bushes or on crotches of 

 limbs, the nests being a loosely made platform of sticks and twigs, with gen- 

 erally a few straws or grasses on the inner surface. In some cases the nests 

 were not more than from eighteen inches to two feet above the ground, as on 

 the west side of the island where the bushes are low and stunted, while on the 

 south and eastern sides they were sometimes placed as high as twelve and 

 fifteen feet above ground, the bushes and scrubby trees here permitting of it. 

 At the time of my visit the majority of these birds had eggs, one being a com- 

 plete set. A few young birds were, however, found on the western side of the 

 island, and it did not take the hot sun long to kill any small young that the 

 parents left unsheltered for even a few moments. The majority of these birds 

 were very tame, allowing one to approach within a feAv feet of them. 



Great numbers of dead birds, hanging from the bushes by wings, feet, or 

 heads, were scattered over the island, the cause of which I discovered when 

 flushing one from its nest. Their short legs and extremely long wings make 

 it a hard matter for the birds to rise from their nests, especially so when the 

 nest is placed on the top of the bushes, and their wings come in contact with 

 other branches in their .effort to rise. A number of times as I watched them 

 in their attempts to alight on or depart from their nest I saw them become 

 entangled in the foliage, from which position they were unable to rise. The 

 odor from the dead birds, with that given out by the birds themselves, was far 

 from agreeable. 



On the Galapagos Islands the man-o'-war birds nest in colonies 

 on the ground or on the rocks, as well as on low bushes. But on the 

 islands off the coast of British Honduras, Capt. D. P. Ingraham 

 writes, in his notes sent to Major Bendire, that he found them nest- 

 ing in the high mangroA^e trees, 60 or 70 feet from the ground, several 

 nests in a tree. 



Referring to some of the breeding colonies in the Bahamas, Dr. 

 Henry Bryant (1861) writes: 



I found a few man-of-war birds breeding at the Biminis. Their nests were 

 placed upon the mangroves, amidst those of the brown pelican and Florida 

 cormorant. As these birds are much disturbed by the inhabitants, their breed- 

 ing places will probably be given up in a few years. On the central and highest 

 part of Booby Key a colony of about 200 pairs was breeding. The nests here 

 were on the bare rock and closely grouped together, the whole not occupying 

 a space more than 40 feet square. There were no boobies amongst them, 

 though thousands were breeding on the key. The largest breeding place visited 

 by me is situated on Seal Island, one of the Ragged Island keys, and is 5 or 6 

 acres in extent. The nests, thickly crowded together, were placed on the tops 

 of prickly pear, which covered the ground with an almost impenetrable thicket. 

 On the 8th of April the young were hatched in half of the nests, the largest 

 about one-third grown ; the other nests contained eggs more or less hatched. 

 Out of many hundreds, I procured only 7 that were freshly laid. 



