142 Papers from the Marine Biological Laboratory at Tortugas. 



height and, with pronounced irregularities in coast Hne, reaches a bhiff-like 

 elevation of 75 feet at the southeastern extremity of the islet. 



About one-eighth of the surface of the island is covered with a dense 

 growth, chiefly of sea-grape (Coccolobis uvifera), but with a liberal mix- 

 ture, mainly about the borders, of a " prickly-pear" cactus (Optintia) and 

 sea-lavender (Toiirnefortia gnaphalodes). Where sufficient soil has ac- 

 cumulated, the remainder of the island supports a growth of coarse grasses, 

 sparse on the higher and rockier portions, more luxuriant in the lower por- 

 tions, particularly about the margins of a small salt pond, the size of which 

 was dependent upon conditions of tide and wind. There is no fresh water 

 on the cay. 



BIRD-LIFE. 



In the literature of ornithology. Cay Verde figures only in Bryant's 

 " List of Birds seen at the Bahamas from January 20 to May 14, 1859," 

 where it is casually mentioned^ as a breeding-place of the tropic-bird 

 (Phacthon flavirostris) . This author writes at some length of the nesting 

 habits of the booby and man-o'-war bird as observed on San Domingo Cay 

 and the Ragged Islands, respectively, but does not refer to the colonies of 

 these birds on Cay Verde. Possibly he did not himself visit Cay Verde, 

 where doubtless both the species of birds named have nested for a pro- 

 longed period ; this cay, so we were informed, having, some ten years ago, 

 been the site of a guano industry, which flourished until all the available 

 deposit had been removed. 



The writer's information in regard to the birds of Cay Verde was ob- 

 tained from the late D. P. Ingraham, who, as a collecting naturalist, visited 

 the cay about 1891. Mr. Ingraham's information in regard to the presence 

 of boobies and man-o'-war birds was fully verified. In May (he also wrote) 

 great numbers of terns (doubtless Sterna fuliginosa, S. ancethetus, and 

 Anous stolidus) and a few tropic-birds come to the cay to nest. 



No land birds appear to be resident on Cay Verde, but it is evidently 

 visited by numbers of migrants. During our stay the following species 

 were noted : 



Common name. Scientific name. 



Audubon's shearwater Puffinus rherminieri 



Sooty tern Sterna fuliginosa 



Great blue heron Ardea herodias 



Little blue heron Florida coerulea 



Black-necked stilt Himantopus mexicanus 



Greater yellow-leg Totanus melanokicus 



Little yellow-leg Totanus flavipes 



Least sandpiper Tringa minutilla 



Turnstone Arenaria morinella 



Osprey Pandion haliaetus 



' Proc. Best. Soc. Nat. Hist., vii, 1859, p. 102. 



