THE BIRDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN - REPUBLIC 349 



to see half a dozen of the birds resting near together, perhaps with 

 two or three so close as to actually touch, all pulling and twisting at 

 the sticks about them to work them more firmly into place. Occa- 

 sionally birds clung back down to the bottom of the nest to pull and 

 tug with much fluttering of wings at refractory bits of material. 

 The twigs are carried into the trees in the bill of the bird and not in 

 the feet as some have stated. The stick is held crosswise in the bill 

 and the bird flies with steady direct flight at a sharp angle upward, 

 often stopping to rest for a moment on some limb before reaching 

 the nest. The stick nest is without question a safeguard against 

 owls and other similar predators. 



On March 10, 1919, Dr. W. L. Abbott secured four eggs as a set 

 from a nest near Laguna on the Samami Peninsula, that he describes 

 as a meter and a half in diameter and the same in height. These eggs 

 are oval, white with a faint gloss, spotted rather heavily with deep 

 to dark heliotrope gray, the spots concentrating to form a more or 

 less distinct wreath at the large end. One egg has the spots fewer 

 and more distinctly outlined than is the case in the other three. They 

 measure as follows : 25.2 by 19.7, 25.2 by 20.1, 25.3 by 19.7 and 25.7 by 

 19.5 mm. Bits of broken egg shell secured by Wetmore at Fonds-des- 

 Negres April 5, 1927. are similarly marked to the eggs described 

 above. The only previous account of the egg that we have seen is 

 that of Lafresnaye 29 who quotes Salle in describing the eggs as white, 

 evidently in error. 



The palm-chat is most evident about its nest where it rests in sun 

 or shadow depending upon the temperature of the hour or perches 

 on the palm fronds or the projecting spike above. In feeding, the 

 birds search through trees and shrubbery, usually two or three to- 

 gether, often seeming alert and vivacious with much character in 

 pose and attitude though at rest with body erect and tail pointing 

 straight down they appear rather stolid and heavy. They are 

 eminently social and seek company, sidling along to perch beside a 

 companion and often resting so near that their bodies touch. Mated 

 pairs were especially attentive so that when one moved along the 

 other immediately followed to crowd against its companion. The 

 birds are very noisy and utter a variety of rather harsh chattering 

 notes in chorus. Wetmore did not succeed in identifying anything 

 that might be called a song. 



Old nests regularly fall to the ground with the maturity and death 

 of the palm fronds that support them, this probably being the foun- 

 dation of the story that a band of two or three hundred gather 

 together to tear out old structures and cast them to the ground, a tale 

 for which there is little reason for credence. 



29 Rev. Mag. Zool., 1851, p. 588. 

 2134—31 23 



