Vol. XX 

 1903 



I BowDisH, Birds of Porto Rico. I ^ 



though still distinct from that of anj' other vireo I have heard." This was 

 the song I heard so much, later on, from the Majaguez hillside ; it was 

 repeated at frequent intervals for about five minutes, the bird then remain- 

 ing silent for about the same space, and then beginning again. A male 

 shot April 22 was evidently then breeding, and the immature birds secured 

 in September and October would seem to indicate the rearing of more 

 than one brood in a season. Their food seems to consist almost wholly 

 of small insects, very few seeds being foimd in the stomachs examined, 

 this species being quite different in this respect from Vireo calidris. 



75. Coereba portoricensis. Porto Rico Honey-creeper. — Like the 

 Gray Kingbird, the Honey-creeper is a characteristic bird all over the 

 island, in the shade trees of the city streets, in the coffee plantations, in 

 the woods and bushy tangles, and nesting in every possible situation. In 

 habits it resembles both wrens and warblers. Their manner of feeding 

 is somewhat suggestive of the chickadees, as they climb among the leaves 

 and flowers, and the food, as shown by stomachs I have examined, includes 

 small insects, largely coleopterous, spiders, and small worms. The nests 

 are built somewhat like those of the Marsh Wrens, but of firmer material, 

 with an entrance at one side, placed in the tips of branches, and varying 

 from two to fifty feet from the ground. The entrance has usually a porch 

 roof, so to speak, extending outward and downward over it. The prevail- 

 ing materials are fine rootlets, grasses, vines, straws, and tendrils, with 

 occasional feathers, hair, bits of wool, and wild cotton, and other mate- 

 rials are more or less frequently utilized. The measurements of a few 

 nests are as follows : 



The inside depth is from the bottom of the entrance to the bottom of 

 the nest. These are probably average examples. Of twenty sets of eggs 

 examined, one was of 4, nine were of 3, and ten were of 2 eggs each. 



The eggs are of a light creamy ground tint, varying in some examples 

 to lighter, and in others to pinkish buff. The markings of fine dots are 

 of a decidedly darker shade, a sort of salmon, and vary from being quite 

 sparse in some to others in which the ground tint is nearly obscured. 

 The song is a wheezy trill, and the alarm note a sharp chirp, somewhat 

 like a warbler's note, and between these they have quite a variety of inter- 

 mediate notes. 



76. Mniotilta varia. Black and White Warbler. — A fairly common 

 winter resident, though much less so than in Cuba. Observed in Vieques 



