516 Mr. P. R. Lowe — Observatlotts 



made use of in the matter of ncst-bnilillng. ]Mr. English 

 has found nests in the "Lady's hair/' "a most villainous 

 plant, with leaves covered with loose stinging hairs." The 

 nest is placed, as a rule, near the end of a branch, the 

 materials used being vegetable libres or grass with an inter- 

 mixture of silk cotton from Aselcpias seeds, and almost 

 always some pieces of bark of the '' "West Indian Birch " 

 {Bu7'sera gummfera). The nest is in the shape of a deep 

 cup or retort, and the same material is used throughout the 

 nest. The entrance is about halfway up from the base of 

 the nest, and is overhung by a kind of pent. Three eggs 

 are usually laid, pink when unblown, with dark spots — very 

 like a Chiffehaft''s. 



The bird has the Wren's habit of building several nests 

 for other reasons than egg-laying. Its food consists of 

 small insects and the sugary secretions of the inside of 

 flowers. The holes left in the base of the tube-shaped 

 flowers are made by the bird's claws and not by the bill as is 

 generally supposed. The movements of the bird generally 

 are those of a Titmouse. 



C(ERF.BA CABOTI. 



Certhiola cahot'i Baird, Am. Xat. vii., Oct. 1873, p. 613 

 (Cozumel Island, Yucatan; Coll. Dr. S. Cabot). 



Ccercha cahoii Ridgway, Birds N. & M. Amer. pt. ii. 1903, 

 p. 40 i. 



Hah. Island of Cozumel, Yucatan (east coast). 



33 J o^ & ? 9 . Coll. Brit. Mus. 



Wing-measurements of 10 (^ ($ average from 60-G3 ram. 



This bird has been described as if its nearest ally were 

 C. hahamensis, and therefore surprise has been expressed 

 that the island of Cuba (on which no Coereba is found) 

 should intervene as a remarkable gap between the distri- 

 bution of these two birds. But in C. cahoti the yellow colora- 

 tion of the underparts is continued much further back and 

 on to the flanks, gradually merging into the huffy yellow of 

 the erissum and under tail-coverts as in C. sharpii. ^Moreover, 

 in C. caboti the distribution of the white coloration on the 

 inner and outer webs of the lateral rectrices conforms to the 



