398 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



southwest of our headquarters, where considerable tracts of corn, 

 cane, sweet potatoes, and other vegetables and fruits were under 

 cultivation, and also to the sea beach to the south, while the region 

 of the Blue Hills was quite thoroughly explored. The word "Blue" 

 is in this case a corruption of " Ballou," the name of a former owner of 

 a large part of this section. The term is applied to a ridge of coral 

 limestone, averaging a hundred feet or less in height, and extending 

 east and west for several miles in the northern part of the island. 

 The surface is extremely rough and sharp, eroded limestone formation 

 protruding everywhere, interspersed with caves, and with "potholes" 

 varying from a few inches to several feet across, often ten or even 

 twenty feet deep, and with perpendicular sides. These potholes are 

 found throughout the hills, and also in the level pine barrens all the 

 way across the island almost to the sandy south shore, and together 

 with the rough surface make traveling very difficult or even dangerous. 

 More than once, while pushing through the dense thicket, I suddenly 

 found myself on the very brink of a a yawning hole, hidden by vines 

 and creepers, and into which a fall might easily have resulted in serious 

 injury. In the crevices of the rock is a scanty soil, which supports 

 a surprisingly thick and heavy growth of shrubbery, called "coppet," 

 while the plain to the southward is covered by scattering pines. At 

 intervals through this "pine barren," as it is called, are low thickets, 

 with tangled masses of vines and creepers, and a few maguey plants 

 here and there. In the pine barren were found such birds as the Ani, 

 Bob-white, Bahama Pine Warbler, and some other warblers, wood- 

 peckers, and fly-catchers, while the Bahama Thrush, Nassau Lizard 

 Cuckoo, and Thick-billed Vireo kept to the thickest coppet. On 

 the hills, and thence northward to Nassau, considerable tracts had 

 been cleared and planted to cocoanut palms, oranges, and pineapples, 

 but most of the fields on the hills had been neglected, and had grown 

 up to bush again, except the tract near our quarter before mentioned. 

 A wild fig tree growing here, which was in full fruit during our stay, 

 attracted numerous Black-backed Spindalis, Bahama Bullfinches, 

 Bahama Bananaquits, and several other species, while the low shrub- 

 bery and flowering plants along the roadsides were the favorite haunts 

 of the Bahama Grassquit and Bahama Wood-star. A good road is 

 maintained by the government, running direct to the south shore of 

 the island, as well as others running east and west on either side of 

 the Blue Hills, which enabled us to extend our investigations much 



