BALD-PATE. 301 



white head, always reminds me, strange as the com- 

 parison may appear, of the grand Bald-Eagle. His 

 coo is Sarp -coat-blue y uttered with much energy, 

 the second syllable short and suddenly elevated, the 

 last a little protracted and descending. 



Incubation takes place chiefly in the months of 

 June and July. In Bluefields morass many nests 

 are found on the tallest black-mangroves, and are 

 much robbed by the negro youths, who rear the 

 young for sale : the native pigeons being, more 

 than any other birds, kept in cages by the Creoles. 

 The nest is merely a very shght platform of dry 

 twigs, rudely attached, on which two eggs are laid. 

 They are of delicate whiteness, in form very regu- 

 larly oval, and in dimensions 1^ inch by 1-^^^. I 

 never heard of its breeding on rocks. 



I add a few particulars of some which I kept 

 from early age. I shot a young one on the 2nd of 

 September, breaking the tarsus ; and about a week 

 afterwards another was brought me which may have 

 been rather older. The former appeared not to 

 have finally left the nest. Both were exceedingly 

 ugly ; long-necked, thin-bodied, the head not well 

 rounded, the fleshy part of the beak prominent, 

 and its base unfeathered. The whole plumage was 

 blackish ash-coloured, each feather slightly tipped 

 with paler, and the feathers of the head terminating 

 in little curled grey filaments, which added to the 

 uncouth appearance of the birds. In a w^eek or tw o 

 I perceived these filaments were gradually disap- 

 pearing, and about the beginning of October the 

 small feathers began to clothe the base of the beak : 



