SAVANNA BLACKBIRD, 287 



pany, forming an immense nest of basket-work by the 

 united labours of the flock, is universally maintained 

 by the inhabitants of the colony. It is said to be 

 usually on a high tree, where many parents bring 

 forth and educate a common family. Mr. Hill, 

 whose statements in Jamaican Ornithology are wor- 

 thy of unlimited confidence, observes : " Some half- 

 a-dozen of them together build but one nest, which 

 is large and capacious enough for them to resort to 

 in common, and to rear their young ones together. 

 They are extremely attentive to the business of 

 incubation, and never quit the nest, while sitting, 

 without covering the eggs with leaves, to preserve 

 them at an equal temperature." The only instance 

 in which I ever met with a nest, while it is not 

 conclusive, is rather in favour of this opinion than 

 the opposite. In July I found a Blackbirds' nest 

 in a Bastard Cedar ( Guazuma) ; it was a rather large 

 mass of interwoven twigs lined with leaves. Eight 

 eggs were in the nest, and the shells of many more 

 were also in it, and scattered beneath the tree. 

 The eggs were about as large as a pullet's, very 

 regularly oval, of a greenish blue, but covered with 

 a coating of white chalky substance, which was 

 much scratched and eroded on them all, and which 

 was displaced with little force. On being broken, 

 the interior was peculiar ; the glaire was less tena- 

 cious than usual, but more jelly-like, yet at the 

 same time thinner in consistence ; but what sur- 

 prised me was, that in each egg this glaire filled at 

 least three-fourths of the whole space, while the 

 yolk, flattened in form, not larger in diameter than 



