Todd: The Birds of the Isle of Pines. 175 



part. This colony was first visited on October i8 and 19. The adult 

 birds proved to be rather shy on this occasion, but a series of young 

 in Juvenal plumage was secured, some still showing remains of the 

 natal down in places. Although practically fully grown, some of the 

 young birds were still confined to the nest, and could only be forced to 

 leave by the use of considerable persuasion. Numerous dead young 

 were noticed, caught by the neck in the fork of a branch, where they 

 had fallen out of the nests, which are so small and frail that one 

 wonders how the young contrive to remain in them at all. Should 

 they drop into the water below they at once fall victims to the waiting 

 crocodiles. A second visit to this same spot, made on April 16 and 17, 

 found the birds with eggs and downy young, some of which were 

 secured, as well as a series of adults. Both sexes incubate, and the 

 brooding birds are very loath to leave their eggs or young. The half 

 of the birds ofi^ duty at any given time are wont to keep swinging about 

 overhead in graceful circles, when not actually engaged in fishing. 



9. Botaurus lentiginosus (Montagu). Bittern. 



Bolaurns lentiginosus Cory, Cat. W. Indian Birds, 1892, 89 (I. of Pines, in geog. 

 distr.). — GuNDLACH, Orn. Cubana, 1895, 192 (I. of Pines). — Bangs & Zappey, 

 Am. Nat., XXXIX, 1905, 188 (I. of Pines, ex Cory and Gundlach). — Cooke, 

 Bull. Biol. Survey, No. 45, 1913, 26 (I. of Pines, ex Gundlach). — Read, I. of 

 Pines News, VI, Dec. 27, 1913 (I. of Pines [ex Cory and Gundlach]). 



A winter visitant, apparently rare, the only records being the in- 

 definite ones cited above, which doubtless all rest on the authority 

 of Gundlach. The species has been recorded as a casual or accidental 

 visitant to Jamaica and Porto Rico, and according to Gundlach is not 

 rare in western Cuba, so that further records from the Isle of Pines 

 may be anticipated. 



ID. Ixobrychus exilis exilis (Gmelin). Least Bittern. 



Ardetta exilis Bangs & Zappey, Am. Nat., XXXIX, 1905, 188 (Cienaga). 



"Least Bittern" Read, Forest and Stream, LXXIII, 1909, 452 (I. of Pines). — 

 Read, Oologist, XXVI, 1909, 58, and XXVII, 1910, 15, and XXVIII, 1911, 7 (I. 

 of Pines); XXVII, 1910, 5 (Nuevas River); XXVIII, 1911, 113 (West McKin- 

 ley). 



Ixobrychus exilis Read, Oologist, XXVIII, 1911, 11, and XXX, 1913, 132 (I. of 

 Pines). — Read, I. of Pines News, VI, Dec. 27, 1913 (I. of Pines). — Read, Bird- 

 Lore, XVI, 1914, so (Santa Barbara). 



One specimen: Siguanea. 



April 28 is the date of capture, which at least raises a strong presump- 

 tion of this being a breeding bird, contrary to what Messrs. Bangs and 



