190 PASSERES. MUSCICAPAD^E. 



in quality. In the latter part of this month, my 

 negro lads, being on a shooting excursion, ob- 

 served on Bluefields Mountain, a domed nest, made 

 apparently of dried leaves, about as large as a 

 child's head, suspended from the under side of a 

 pendent branch of a tall tree. They watched awhile 

 to discover the owner, and presently saw the fe- 

 male of the present species enter, and re-emerge, 

 while the male was hopping about the tree. A 

 day or two after, I myself observed a similar nest, 

 similarly situated, beneath one of the pendent 

 branches of a tall cotton-tree, at Cave, on the 

 road to Savanna-le-Mar. It appeared to be com- 

 posed of loose trash, rather a ragged structure, 

 but evidently domed, with the entrance near the 

 bottom. Both the male and female were playing 

 and calling around it, and the latter at length 

 went in. On the llth of May, passing that way 

 again, I observed this nest to be considerably larger, 

 not less than a foot in diameter, as well as I could 

 judge from the great elevation ; its outline, how- 

 ever, was still ragged. I estimated the height of 

 the nest to be between seventy and eighty feet, 

 though on the lowest branch of the tree, and that 

 pendent. Yet this Ceiba had not attained the 

 giant dimensions common to the species. A few 

 days after this, Sam saw a third nest, formed and 

 placed exactly as in the former cases, so that I 

 concluded this to be the usual economy. A fourth 

 example, however, showed me, that the lofty ele- 

 vation is not indispensable, as also that I had not 

 yet seen the largest specimens of the nests. On 



