6o



Mr. J. L. Bonhote,



dead twigs forming on the top a roughly circtilar platform some

two or three feet in diameter. Three appears to be the usual

number of young, and incubation commences towards the

beginning of December. The photograph which appeared in

the last number will give some idea of the nest and the

mangroves among which it was placed ; one of the young from

that nest is now alive and well in my aviaries. The first photo,

in the present number represents an adult bird which was captured

after being slightly hit in the wing; but I did not succeed in

keeping it alive.


Before they are fledged, the young have a peculiar habit,

when annoyed or alarmed, of sitting up on their tarsi, and holding

their heads vertically downwards, drooping their wingp at the

same time, and in this attitude they remain motionless until the

cause of alarm has passed away. In the nest they are very

quarrelsome, pecking viciously at each other for no apparent

reason ; after leaving the nest, however, they roam about in

family parties, aud, if met with under these circumstances,

the old ones will hover round the intruder uttering their plaintive

cry,which much resembles that of the majority of the Raptores.


As will be readily understood, small birds are almost

entirely absent from these regions (the thick bush excepted), and

in all my wanderings I have hardly noted half-a-dozen species.

One kind alone is at home here and was not found elsewhere,

namely the Summer Warbler {Dendroeca petechia) or one of its

nearly allied races. This species is quite the brightest of the

Warblers met with in the Bahamas. In its general tone it is

bright yellow, tinged with greenish on the back, while the neck

and flanks are more or less striped with chestnut. It is a

sprightly little bird and looks a veritable jewel as it darts to and

fro in the dark thick tangle of the mangroves among which

it lives.


The Red-winged Starling (Agelczus phcoiiceits) is another of

the mangrove and swamp-loving birds; the male is pure black

with a gorgeous blaze of scarlet on the upper wing coverts, which

is only displayed when flying or when pouring out its rapturous,

if somewhat unmusical, song. The females and young males are

very different in appearance, being of light brown in colour with



