-7 '72 '^coiT on the Birds of Jamaica. [October 



eagerly at the former the instant they were presented. I always offered 

 the lizards alive, tied at the end of a short thread, when they would he 

 seized and instantly swallowed. Although the object of constant and dili- 

 o-ent search, I never succeeded in finding the nest of this species, and I 

 had even begun to despair of obtaining any reliable particulars concern- 

 ino- its mode of nesting. Late in the year 1S90, however, a friend, then 

 resident in the Vere district of the Parish of Clarendon, wrote me, saying 

 that he had discovered a nest of this bird, which he described as a loose, 

 flat structure of twigs ; it was placed high up on a large tamarind tree and 

 contained one egg. The egg remained in his possession for some time 

 and was eventually broken, so that little more than half of the shell 

 came into my possession. In shape it appeared to have been round- 

 oval, the surface rough or chalky, and in color wholly dull white. I judged 

 it to have been about the size of an average egg of the Savanna Blackbird 

 (^Crotophaga ani). 



126. Coccyzus minor {Gitiel.). — This Cuckoo I have found to be 

 fairly common in the lowlands of Kingston and St. Andrew. At Port 

 Henderson we frequently met with it among the mangrove thickets, and 

 in the low, swampy lands near the seashore^ I am not satisfied, how- 

 ever, that all the examples seen can be safely referred to this species; 

 some individuals appeared smaller and paler and may have been repre- 

 sentatives of the Florida variety, C. m. maynardi. As, however. I did not 

 procure specimens for identification, the point remains unsettled. Be- 

 tween the months of June and August, several Cuckoos' nests with eggs 

 were taken in the localities just mentioned. Of these a certain propor- 

 tion can doubtless be safely ascribed to the present species, but in many 

 cases the question of identity was invested with difficulty, C. americanus 

 being also a common resident species, frequenting the same localities and 

 nesting in just the same manner as C. minor; the points of difierence, too, 

 between the species are not such as could be clearly indicated to or 

 appreciated by the native collectors, to whom we were indebted for 

 most of the eggs obtained. Nests were occasionally found in man- 

 grove clumps, more often in the spreading cashaw trees; they were 

 always of the rudest possible construction, just half a dozen or more 

 slender twigs laid without any pretense to arrangement, barely serving 

 to accommodate the eggs; these differ in no appreciable respects from 

 those of C. americanus. 



127. Coccyzus americanus(Z./««.). — The Yellow-billed Cuckoo, as stated 

 above, frequents the woods and mangrove thickets at Port Henderson, 

 where we met with it daily. Of the few well authenticated eggs obtained, 

 four now in my possession, taken as late as August i,were fresh. I have 

 already referred to this Cuckoo as a resident species, though in all prob- 

 abilitv it may be found to be partially migratory. When at the Morant 

 Cays in April, 1S90, one or more of these birds haunted the low bushes 

 along the shores, disappearing, however, in the course of a few days. 



128. Hyetornis pluvialis {Gmel.). — No notes. I have not met with 

 this species. 



