3^4 



rAuk 



BowDiSH, Birds of Porto Rico, Vq^x 



/ 



eggs laid, and by the time the set is completed the nest is pretty well 

 filled. The measurements of the nest were : depth 6.00 X i-5o; diameter, 

 9.00 X 450 inches. Of the eggs, incubation had begun in eight. The 

 other twelve were fresh. They are cuckoo's egg blue, streaked longitudi- 

 nally with a limy white deposit which washing does not remove. They 

 average 1.55 X i-o8 inches, and five individuals selected at random meas- 

 ure : 1.50 X 1. 00; 1.57 X 1. 10; 1.59 X i.io; 1.53 X 1.09; 1.56 X i-io. 

 A pair of birds that I shot from a flock feeding in a pasture had their 

 stomachs distended with grasshoppers, probably fifty or more in each. 



Of other stomachs examined the largest proportion of the contents 

 was insects, a small percentage being seeds. These strange birds, with 

 their quaint cry, are called 'black witch ' by the English speaking people 

 of the West Indies, and ' hudia' in Spanish. 



/■ 45. Saurothera vieilloti. Vieillot's Ground Cuckoo. — Not rare, but 

 not nearly as common as is 5. merlifiiin Cuba, and much more retiring. Its 

 notes are cuckoo-like but deeper and more guttural than those of our 

 birds. Though the birds are called 'lizard cuckoo,' I found a lizard in 

 but one of the stomachs examined, insect food, largely coleoptera, prevail- 

 ing. Of their breeding I unfortunately learned nothing. 



. 46. Coccyzus minor dominicensis. Mangrove Cuckoo. — This bird, 

 like the last, is apparently not abundant in Porto Rico, though I found 

 tliein fairly so at Mona Island. The notes are much like those of the 

 Yellow-billed Cuckoo. A female shot near Mayaguez, Sept., 1901, would 

 have laid the first egg the next day. This is the meagre information of 

 their breeding which I gathered. Lizards as well as insects enter into 

 their diet. The stomach of the specimen taken contained two lizards, a 

 snail, and a katydid. 



. 47. Coccyzus americanus. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. — I shot several 

 near Aguadilla, and secured one on Mona Island. They do not appear 

 to be abundant. 



' 48. Todus hypochondriacus. Very plentiful about Aguadilla and 

 Mayaguez, especially the latter. They were not abundant in the vicinity 

 of San Juan, and I did not find them on the smaller islands. Structurally 

 its closest aflinity is with the Kingfisher. 



This bird belongs to a genus comprising six species, all occurring in 

 the Greater Antilles. They are quite fearless of man, and often approach 



within two or three feet of the observer, apparently moved by curiosity. 

 The condition of birds examined on Feb. 3 indicated the approach of 

 the breeding season, and others examined on May 30 that the breeding 

 season was well along. 



I was unable to find a nest but a lad who claimed to have found them 

 said they laid in burrows dug in a bank of earth, and that the eggs were 

 white. One of the notes of this species is curiously like the low quack 

 of a duck, but loud for the size of the bird. It also at times emits a sound 

 like a whir of springs, usually when taking a short flight. In mentioning 

 this characteristic of the Cuban bird, T. multicolor, Mr. Chapman says he 



