34 PASSERES. FRINGILLAD^:. 



his wound. I gently rubbed them with a soft wet 

 sponge, but whether he took cold, or whether I 

 irritated the wound, I know not; but on being 

 returned to the cage, he instantly began to breathe 

 asthmatically with open beak, apparently with pain ; 

 interrupted now and then by fits of coughing, 

 which continued all night, and on the next morning 

 he died. On dissection, I could not find that the 

 shot had penetrated the chest, but they were im- 

 bedded in the muscles of the forearm, and had 

 broken the scapula. 



A nest, reported to be of the Cashew bird, was 

 brought me on the 18th of June, taken from a 

 pimento tree. It was a thick, circular mat, slightly 

 concave, of a loose but soft texture, principally 

 composed of cotton, decayed leaves, epidermis of 

 weeds, slender stalks, and tendrils of passion-flower, 

 intermingled, but scarcely interwoven. I think it 

 probable that this had been sustained by a firmer 

 framework ; and that the person who took it merely 

 tore out the soft lining as a bed on which the 

 eggs might be carried. The child who brought it, 

 could give no account of this. The eggs were two, 

 long-oval, taper at the smaller end ; 1 -^ inch by 

 nearly ^; white, sparingly dashed with irregular 

 dusky spots, in a rude ring around the larger end. 

 The embryo was at this time formed. 



