74 Northrop o)/ the Birch of A>idros Island. | January 



tlirevv hiniselt rapidlj and almost violently from side to side in an almost 

 horizontal line. During this latter part of the display a rustling sound 

 was produced, probably by the vibrations of the wings, and a few short 

 sharp notes were uttered. He then darted suddenly at the female who all 

 the while had been sitting apparently unconcerned, seemed almost to 

 touch her with his bill, and then flew rapidly away. Shortly afterward 

 the female left, flying in another direction. During all of the display the 

 two birds were facing each other and not more than six or eight inches 

 apart, and the gorget and tail of the male were exposed to their fullest 

 advantage. 



36. Sporadinus ricordi Gerv. Ricord's Hummingbird. — This was 

 abundant on Andros, where all my specimens were obtained, none being 

 seen on New Providence. Curiously enough, in this species, there 

 seemed to be a great preponderance of males, and out of the seven speci- 

 mens collected, but one proved to be a female. It may safely be said that 

 most of those we saw were males, as the females are quite difli'erent, 

 being smaller and lacking the beautiful blue-green gorget. The ovaries 

 of the bird collected May 16 were not enlarged. It is probable that both 

 Doricka evelynce, and Sporadinus ricordi breed on the island ; tiiat one of 

 them certainly does was evidenced by a nest that I was shown. It was 

 lined with cotton, and was evidently the nest of a Hummingbird. 



37. Crotophaga ani Linn. Ani. Rain Crow. — Frequently seen on 

 both New Providence and Andros, and always in small flocks of three or 

 more. They were not as tameas mostofthe land birds, being on the con- 

 trary quite shy, and it was a difficult matter to get very close to them, as 

 one of the flock was almost certain to espy you, and to notifj' the others with 

 his loud warning '■tvee-eep.,' a note in which the second syllable was much 

 higher than the first, and more prolonged. On one occasion while walking 

 through the woods during a rain, we noticed what looked like a square 

 black board suspended to a pine some distance from the path. On inves- 

 tigation the black object was discovered to be seven Crotophagas, sitting 

 ill a row on a small dead branch, and crowded as closely together as pos- 

 sible. They were not asleep, however, for when I had approached within 

 thirty or forty feet, a warning note was heard, then another and another, 

 as they one by one took flight. 



38. Saurothera bahamensis Bryant. Great P>ahama Cuckoo. — The 

 ' Rain Crow,' as the natives call this bird, was said to be abundant, but 

 we got but one mature specimen and two young ones. Dr. Bryant states 

 that they were quite common on New Providence in 1S59. They fly 

 about with a weak, wavy motion, and the people told us that they could 

 catch them after a short chase, as they soon grew tired. Our specimens 

 were obtained on the following dates, May 20, May 26, June 13 ; all on the 

 eastern side of Andros. The one taken on May 20 was a mature female, 

 and the ovaries were enlarged, some of the ova being over one fourth of 

 an inch in diameter. In the stomach were grasshoppers and a small 

 lizard. Tiie stomachs of the others contained the remains of insects. 

 Their bills were soiled, probably from investigating the leaves of the 



