^"Iso^^n Richmond, Habits of Porzaiia citirrriccps. 1% 



in the same manner. Specimens were occasionally found in 

 traps set for small mammals along the river banks. These traps 

 were baited with pieces of almost ripe banana, and unquestionably 

 this fruit enters to some extent into its bill of fare, as it does into 

 that of so many other species frequenting the plantations. 



As the birds were found almost exclusively in the rank growth 

 of tall grass on the banks of running streams, it was quite natural 

 to think they should nest in the same places, but this did not 

 prove to be the case. 



My first nest was found May 15, and this date, I believe, marks 

 about the commencement of the nesting season for this species. 

 I had gone ashore early in the morning to inspect some traps set 

 the evening before, and was returning through an open space, 

 when a quivering of the grass in front attracted my eye. A short 

 search revealed a globular, rather compactly made nest with an 

 entrance in the side. It contained three eggs, apparently quite 

 fresh. The nest was about a foot and a half from the ground, 

 almost as high as the dense grass supporting it, and was con- 

 structed entirely of these grasses, and lined with broad leaves of the 

 same material. The entrance was at the si.de, and, in this case, 

 facing the river. The location of this nest was a grassy knoll on 

 the edge of a lemon grove, about twenty yards from the river, and 

 was the highest point in the neighborhood, being about forty or 

 fifty feet above the river level. The identity of the proprietor of 

 this nest with the little Rail did not occur to me at the time. I 

 rather had in mind the new Meadowlark described by Mr. Ridgway 

 a few years ago, from the eastern part of Honduras (not so very 

 many miles away), and the resemblance of the eggs to those of a 

 Meadowlark was quite striking. After marking the spot I with- 

 drew, intending to return later for the eggs and get the parent 

 bird if possible. The rainy season had begun about the first of 

 May, and the weather was not all that a collector could desire. 

 However, there was a period of fair weather late in the afternoon, 

 so I went ashore again to look about, visiting a neighboring banana 

 plantation and the lemon grove before mentioned. On this trip 

 I found another nest similar to the one discovered in the morning. 

 It was fully three hundred yards from the river, but adjacent to a 

 ditch which had now become quite a respectable creek. This 



