338 TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



tatingly crouched upon them and the incubation proceeded 

 as if nothing had occurred. 



The following day I removed both nest and eggs, put- 

 ting them in a prominent spot, only a few feet away from 

 their original resting place. The parent bird, disturbed by 

 my efforts, flew excitedly about, and the instant I left the 

 ladder, flew to where her home had been. She almost upset 

 herself in vain efforts to alight on the nest, where the nest 

 was not. Only after crouching for a full minute among the 

 few straws that were left, did she realize that it was gone. 

 She rushed to the edge of the beam, looked around and then 

 back to where the nest ought to be, dragging the straws about 

 as if the nest might be hidden beneath them ; then to the edge 

 to look at the ground below, and then back. She repeated 

 all these movements several times, and at last, thinking that 

 some terrible mistake had been made, flew about for a few 

 minutes before returning to repeat her former operations. 

 Again she returned, this time with her mate, who in turn, 

 showed excitement, and to whom the mystery was as inex- 

 plicable as to her. Finally they perched together on the 

 beam edge. Their eyes searched in all directions, though 

 chiefly downward, as if the nest had fallen and rolled to 

 some obscure hiding place. Then they flew away only to 

 return again and again, hoping each time to find the nest 

 in its old position. The nest remained in plain sight, but, 

 though they often passed close by, the idea never occurred 

 to them to investigate it. 



At last, deciding that it was not on the ground and not 

 thinking to search elsewhere, they went to roost on the orig- 

 inal site. Doubtless it was instinct that caused them to 

 search below, but it must have been the habit of finding the 

 nest in the same place day after day, which prompted them 

 to seek only in the one spot above, although the nest stood in 

 plain view before them. 



Instinct and actual habit are so closely associated that 

 at times it is scarcely possible to distinguish between them. 



