2^54 Scott on the Telloivbilled Tropic Bird. [July 



shape as a whole.' The bottom was covered with coarse sand and 

 Ejravel, and boulders of varying size, evidently having- fallen from 

 above, were scattered thickly over this floor except at the extreme 

 back of the cavern furtherest from the sea. 'I'he height of the 

 roof or ceiling, which was of an uneven rough surface, was 

 about twenty-five feet, and many bats were hanging wherever the 

 projections or inequalities afforded them opportunity. Toward 

 the back of this chamber five birds were secured, each one sit- 

 ting on a single ^^^- The place chosen for the nesting site, for 

 this is all it can be termed, was in all these cases where two 

 boulders on the gravelly floor lay close together, just leaving 

 room on the ground for the birds to crawl between them. Two 

 birds were olitained in like situations that had not laid, and may 

 have been simply resting. The females were in every case the 

 birds that were sitting on the eggs, and it was quite evident upon 

 dissection that the single egg forms the complement in these cases. 

 The birds taken from the holes in the clifl', and also those taken 

 in this cave, were very tame, and were captured readily without 

 attempting to escape. Later on the same day a bird was found 

 with a single egg laid at the bottom of one of the holes in the 

 face of the cliftV 



The eggs thus secured, six in all, are before me. They vary 

 very considerably both as to color and markings as well as in 

 size. No. 1 is not unlike the darker examples of the eggs of the 

 Fish Hawk i^Pandtoii hallaitiis carolinensis) in color and 

 shape, though rather smaller being 2.30 X 1.70 inches. This 

 eo-o- contained a chick almost ready to be hatched. The extreme 

 in variation as far as color is concerned is No. 2, a fresh egg, 

 having a very light ground color, profusely and evenly spotted all 

 over with irregularly shaped dark purplish brown spots. It meas- 

 ures 2.12 X 1.50 inches. 



No. 3 is of a lavender brown color, and its profuse, irregular 

 markings, which are but little darker, are of a similar shade. It 

 is 2.22 long and 1.^2 in the smaller diameter, and contained an 

 embryo about half developed. 



No. 4 is much the shorter of the six before me, but does not 

 difier much from the others in its smaller diameter. It measures 

 i.gSxi-5i inches. Its ground color is light cream. At the 

 larger end this is profusely spotted with fine markings of a dark 

 purplish brown. At the more acute or pointed end these mark- 



