1S91.I NoRTiiRor on the Birds of A?/dros Island. *1'1 



ever, soutided more like ' Pir-ra-7nc-</tiick-(/nick.' Tliose procured were 

 shot in the da^'time, on the vvestei'n side of Andros, on June 17. They 

 were sitting motionless on the hot, dry plain, and ciid not ily until we 

 were within a very few feet of them. Even when disturbed they would 

 alight again very shortly, and crouch close to the ground as before. 



*34. Antrostomus carolinensis {Gmel.). Ciiuck-will's-widow. — 

 Three specimens were taken, two of which were distiu'bed in the woods 

 during the daytime, and the other shot at dusk. Upon examining the 

 stomach of the first one 1 shot, I found, amid an indistinguishable mass 

 of brownish matter, a small bone, about half an inch long, that looked 

 like the leg of a small bird. The ne.\t one examined contained in its 

 stomach the partially digested remains of an entire Hummingbird, 

 enough of which was preserved to identify it beyond doubt as Sforadinus 

 ricordi. "The remains of a small bird are said to have been found within 

 the stomach of one of this species."* One collected on May 15 contained 

 remains of beetles and winged ants in its stomach. The testes were 

 much enlarged, being about half an inch in length, but I am not sure 

 that the bird breeds on the island. 



35. Doricha evelynse {Bourc). Bahama Woodstar. — Well distrib- 

 uted over both New Providence and Andros, and as common in the pines 

 as in the coppet. They are both curious and pugnacious, for one day we 

 watched one chase a Deiidroica discolor off a tree, and follow it some 

 little distance, and while walking through the woods one of these birds 

 would often alight close by or hover over our heads, as if examining us, 

 and they flew through the house a number of times. They seemed I0 

 alight on the branches quite as frequentlj' as other birds, and we often 

 watched them perch and preen their feathers. Their little silvery trill 

 was a quite common note in the pines, and for a while we thought it the 

 song of some bird in the distance until we caught sight of the tiny song- 

 ster almost above our heads. They do not always confine their attention 

 to tiowers, for one day a Doriclia, after fluttering about the basket of 

 flowers in my hand, made a dart at a good-sized spider in a web close by, 

 and to our surprise demolished it and was off again in a moment. Of the 

 numbers that we saw at New Providence, none were adult males, and of 

 those collected on Andros there was a large preponderance of females. 



On one occasion we had the good fortune to see a male who was evi- 

 dently displaying his charms. The female was perched on a branch of a 

 low shrub and before her the male was performing. His wings were 

 vibrating rapidly in the usual manner, and thus supported in the air he 

 swung rapidly to and fro, at the same time rising and falling, a move- 

 ment very difficult to describe but almost exactly like that of a ball sus- 

 pended by an elastic thread that stretches and contracts as the ball swings 

 back and forth. This exceedingly graceful movement was executed through 

 a small arc for a few minutes, and then was suddenly changed. The 

 male expanded his tail, showing the cinnamon of the webs, and then 



* Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, N. A. Birds, Vol. II, p. 413. 



