380 Mr. 0. Salvia on the Sea-birds of British Honduras. 



four rotten eggs. A few Man-of-war Birds breed in the same 

 trees, nearly all of which had eggs. This Booby makes a nest 

 very like the Man-of-war Bird^ i. e. of twigs rather untidily laid 

 together in a convenient fork in the top of a tree. I could not 

 easily calculate the number of birds in this colony, but there 

 were certainly several thousands. Returning to the cocoa-nut 

 grove, we rested a short time to cool down, and then looked 

 quietly about for small birds, as I had seen several species round 

 the houses. Amongst them I was delighted to find the Melano- 

 ptila glabrirostris, Scl., a rare and curious form of Mocking- 

 bird^ with a uniform glossy blue-black plumage. I had been 

 looking out for it everywhere in Vera Paz, knowing that the 

 first specimens had been obtained in Honduras, but in vain. 

 Besides its rarity, the doubt with which Dr. Sclater referred it 

 to this section of the Turdidce made it a doubly interesting dis- 

 covery, and I consequently watched it with greater eagerness. 

 It is, I believe, rightly placed, as the habits of the bird agree 

 well with the Mock-bird of the district (which also occurs on 

 the Cays), not only in its actions and flight, but in its sweet 

 though short song. I was too early to obtain its eggs, but a 

 pilot assured me they were blue, which was corroborated by 

 Sam. It goes by the name of the " Georgy Bird" amongst 

 the Creoles. I could only hear of its occurring on the outer 

 Cays, viz. those of Lighthouse and Glover's Reefs. I found, 

 too, another bird new to me [Dendroeca vieillotii, Cassin), be- 

 longing to the American Warblers. It resembles the common 

 D. (estiva, but differs in having a chestnut throat. Two Hum- 

 ming-Birds occur, Lampornis prevosti and Amazillia cinnamomea ', 

 two species of Tyrants, Tyrannus intrepidus and Elainea sub- 

 pagana, and the Bald-pate Pigeon {Columba leucocephala) . I 

 also shot Euspiza americana. 



They say that these outer Cays, at the time of the autumn 

 migration, swarm with small birds, which stay to rest on their 

 passage. A large Lizard {Iguana, sp. ?) abounds on this Cay : 

 one or two may be seen in almost every tree, basking on the 

 branches, or making their escape by scrambling from bough to 

 bough. Small Lizards {Anolis, sp.), too, peer at one round the 

 cocoa-nut trees, and, waiting a moment to extend their highly 



