^'i'o^'^l BowDiSH, Food Habits of West Indian Birds. 1 03 



bird is nowhere so abundant as about Phillip's Station, on the summit. 

 Here this peerless singer was heard occasionally through the day but 

 more often at dusk. I found a nest, built principally of rootlets, placed 

 in a small tamarack 6 feet up, along the road east of Phillip's Station on 

 July 3, 1902. It contained three rather pale blue eggs in which incuba- 

 tion had just begun. I discovered two other nests the same day, one 

 along the road, 6 feet up in a tamarack, with four small young ; the 

 other was found deep in the woods, artfully placed among the branches 

 of a dead tamarack, and held four large young. In the last two cases 

 the parents were reluctant to leave the nest, and hopped about the 

 branches near by, showing great anxiety and settled down on the nest 

 immediately after we left. 



107. Merula migratoria propinqua. Western Robin. — As usual in 

 the Sierras the robin was the most common bird of its size, in Lake 

 Valley as well as up to 8000 feet altitude. It begins to lay in the Lake 

 Valley about the first of June, and a little later or earlier at other points, 

 according to the altitude. 



108. Hesperocichla naevia. Varied Thrush. — Mr. Price collected a 

 specimen on Silver Creek, Oct. i, 1896. 



109. Sialia arctica. * Mountain Bluebird. — Very common in Lake 

 Valley. I found nine nests one day on a ramble near Bijou, all placed in 

 dead trees or stumps, from 3 to 15 feet up. After the first week in June 

 nests contained partly incubated eggs, although an occasional late nest 

 was found. The Western Robin, Western Chipping Sparrow and the 

 Mountain Bluebird are the three commonest birds in the pine woods, 

 and although the latter is last on this list it is by no means the least 

 interesting bird in the region. 



FOOD HABITS OF SOME WEST INDIAN BIRDS. 



BY B. S. BOWDISH. 



So FAR as I have noticed, few writers have given much attention 

 to the extent to which many birds of famiHes which in the States 

 are considered more or less strictly insectivorous, feed in the West 

 Indies largely on fruit and seeds. 



In 'The Auk' for October, 1902, Mr. John Grant Wells men- 

 tions Vireo calidris as feeding more or less on small red berries, 

 and occasional mention of other cases may be found. 



In Porto Rico the woodpecker, Melanerpes portoricensis, forms 



