THE BIRDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 431 



This tiny grassquit is one of the most abundant species of native 

 birds on the island, in many localities seeming to outnumber any 

 other form twenty to one. It inhabits thickets and growths of weeds, 

 coming out in flocks of twenty-five to one hundred to feed quietly 

 on open turf where seeds and other food may be found. The general 

 color of the plumage is a peculiar gray green that is inconspicuous 

 in the glaring light of the sun even when the birds are on the wing 

 so that their tiny forms escape detection except by the most ob- 

 servant in spite of their abundance. They range from semi-arid 

 open lands into the higher mountains wherever there is open ground 

 suitable for their needs. Across the summit of La Selle they were 

 found amid the bracken of the pine-lands and in the weeds of aban- 

 doned fields. At Constanza they were frequent among the open 

 thickets of guava bushes. Though frequently quarreling petulantly 

 they are social and feed in flocks, and when startled often fly up to 

 perch in trees and bushes in close proximity. The song of the male 

 is a sibilant, buzzing trill that at fifty yards is barely audible. The 

 species is one that can maintain itself with increase in agriculture 

 and will remain in abundance when some others of the native birds 

 have become very rare as it delights in canefields, plantations and 

 pastures. Following is a brief summary of recorded occurrence : 



Dominican Kepublic : Monte Cristi, Sosua, Choco (Peters) ; San- 

 tiago (Peters, Wetmore) ; Villa Rivas (Tristram, Abbott) ; Pimen- 

 tel (Abbott) ; El Valle (Verrill) ; La Vega (Cory, Verrill, Beck) ; 

 Jarabacoa (Abbott) ; El Rio, Constanza (Abbott, Wetmore) ; Com- 

 endador to Azua (Wetmore) ; Santo Domingo City, (Beck, Dan- 

 forth) ; Loma Tina (Beck) ; Bonao (Danforth) ; Haina, San Juan 

 (Ciferri). 



Haiti : Moustique (Abbott) ; Caracol, Tlinche, Maissade, Las Ca- 

 hobes, Morne a Cabrits (Wetmore) ; Port-au-Prince (Younglove, 

 Wetmore) ; La Selle, Kenskoff, Chapelle Faure, Fonds-des-Negres, 

 Aquin, L'Acul (Wetmore) ; Jeremie (Bartsch, Abbott) ; Grande 

 Cayemite Island (Abbott) ; Tortue Island (Bond) ; St. Michel, St. 

 Raphael (Poole and Perry go) ; Gonave Island (Danforth. Poole and 

 Perrygo). 



Cory describes a nest taken August 15 (locality and year not given) 

 that contained two fresh eggs, in color dull white, heavily blotched 

 with brown on the large end and faintly spotted elsewhere with the 

 same color. The eggs measured ".66 by .48 " inches. " The nest is 

 usually built in the branches of a low tree, and is made of grass 

 very loosely put together." 60 



Danforth records a nest at Hato Mayor, Dominican Republic, 

 July 7, 1927, placed a foot above the ground in a small bush and says 



60 Cory, Birds Haiti and San Domingo, 1885, p. 66. 



