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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



young birds should emerge from the egg into 

 the mass of maggots, there is no doubt in my 

 mind that they would very quickly die. 

 Does the jacamar so time the depositing of 

 its eggs that the young will not emerge until 

 after the maggots have gone into the pupa 

 stage? 



Other species of birds, such as the motmots, 

 carry quantities of insects into their nests, 

 but only after the young are born. I have 

 frequently found very vile-smelling nests of 



An oriole nest suspended heiiealh Ihe niitlrih of a banana leaf and 

 between the webs of the two halves, wliieh are pierced and slit to permit the 

 interweaving of the supporting fibers. In the fresh green leaf tlie in- 

 cisions are not evident at any distance, so that the nest itself is concealed 

 both from a))OVC and from Ihe sid<w, and is protected from siiii and storm as 

 well as from enemies 



these birds, but no maggots develop until 

 after the young are pretty well grown, and 

 indeed have moved from the nest cavity 

 proper, so that they escape immediate con- 

 tact with the maggots. 



A species of puff bird whose nest I had long 

 sought was discovered finally quite by acci- 

 dent. One day, as I was trying to protect 

 myself from a sudden shower that had over- 

 taken me in the forest, and was crowding in 

 among the thick branches of a low tree, I 

 heard a sound that seemed 

 to come from the ground 

 beside me — the cheep of 

 a young bird. I looked 

 about on all sides but 

 could not discover any- 

 thing. The sound was re- 

 peated. It seemed nearer 

 to my feet than before but 

 nothing was in sight. My 

 attention however was 

 presently fixed on what 

 appeared to be a small 

 pile of brush that had been 

 brought together by a cur- 

 rent of wind. Closer ex- 

 amination revealed the 

 fact that there was an en- 

 trance beneath this pile of 

 brush on one side, where 

 the ground seemed to have 

 been swept clean by some 

 animal entering and leav- 

 ing. With a movement 

 of my foot I pushed the 

 brush aside, and was sur- 

 prised to find beneath it a 

 good-sized hole leading 

 down into the ground. I 

 had no idea what the oc- 

 cupant might be, but se- 

 cured a long stick with a 

 fork on the end of it. I 

 punched this into the hole 

 to discover whether there 

 was a tenant, and was sur- 

 l)rised to hear a bird's 

 sharp squeak as a result 

 of my investigation. A 

 few twists of the stick in 

 my hand and I drew it out 

 with a bird attached to 

 the end, the feathers hav- 

 ing become entangled 

 about the small fork. It 



