22 Mr. G. C. Taylor on Birds collected 



doors, or you may jump up again quicker than pleases you. The 

 house we occupied at Comayagua was overrun by ants. They 

 were constantly occupied in excavating the walls, and depositing 

 the earth, in the shape of pills, in large heaps on the floor below. 

 Nothing would stop them. Gunpowder was tried, and arsenic 

 mixed with sugar was poured down their holes ; but to no purpose, 

 still the mining went on. The tables and food were overrun, 

 and the latter damaged by them. They got into tea, beer, wine, 

 and every thing else that was left exposed. If a piece of bread, 

 meat, or fruit was left on a table for an hour or so, they would 

 find it out and would soon be »een, in a long stream, passing to 

 and fro over the floor, and up the legs of the table. The only 

 way we could keep our bread from them was by putting it in a 

 basket suspended from a beam by a single string. 1 was obliged 

 to do the same with the bii'ds shot ; for if left on a shelf or table, 

 the ants would quickly find them. 



I have not been able to make out at what season the birds 

 breed in Honduras. The Frigate Pelican was breeding on the 

 1st of January ; and on the Pacific Slope I found a few fresh nests 

 of Tyrannidce. I also noticed a pair of large hawks making a 

 nest near Comayagua; but these were the only instances observed. 

 I saw no nests whatever on the Atlantic slope, although I was 

 always on the look-out for them. But the density of the bush, 

 the thorns, and the certainty of being covered with ants, ticks, 

 and other ferocious insects upon attempting to penetrate it, 

 restricted my researches in this particular. During my stay in 

 the country, my constant attention was given to ornithology. I 

 often sat up a great part of the night, to skin birds I had killed 

 during the day. 



Butterflies of every size and colour are innumerable in 

 Honduras. Mr. Edwards always carried a net with him, and 

 obtained many diffei-eut species, some of them of great size and 

 rare beauty. The ants used to commit great depredations upon 

 his collections. 



But ants, wasps, mosquitos, and indeed all these united, were 

 not half so noisome as the ticks and agarrapatas. These may 

 truly be considered the curse of the country. The ticks are 

 aljout the sii'.c of the common dog-tick. They hold on tight to 



