opiSTnocoMus. - 57 



Notes on the Breeding of the Hoaizin (Ibis, 1888, p. 379). — 

 The following extracts from a letter addressed to Dr. P.L. Sclater 

 by Mr. Quelch, of the British Guiana Museum, Demerara, dated 

 March 31st, 1888, will be read with interest : — 



" T have just been up to the Berbice Eiver and the Canje 

 Creek after the Hoatzin. From information given to me I had 

 ascertained that the birds were laying, but that they had only 

 just begun. When I went up by myself and examined the 

 district, I found a considerable number of nests with one, others 

 with two, and a few with three eggs. Two eggs seem to be the 

 usual complement; in fact, I was told they never laid more than 

 two eggs at one nesting, but in a few nests there were certainlj' 

 three eggs. In not a single nest did I find any young ones, nor 

 did I see any birds about which, from their smaller size, appeared 

 to have been lately hatched. I brought down with me a con- 

 siderable number of Pggs, some quite fresh, and others, so far as 

 I can judge from the appearance of the eggs, in different stages 

 of incubation ; and in this respect the conduct of the birds when 

 driven off the nest seemed to me conclusive. The incubated eggs 

 (sixteen) I have put into spirit, forty over proof, and will change 

 soon into fresh spirit. The fresh eggs I am trying to get a hen 

 to hatch out, but I do not know yet svhether I shall succeed. 



" I am going to wait for another three weeks or so, and then 

 I shall go up and take my zinc pans for the big birds and what 

 chickens and incubated eofrs I can find. I am afraid the birds 

 will have to be shot. There is no way of catching them other- 

 wise. They are fairly plentiful along the Canje Creek and the 

 Berbice River ; but there is generally great difficulty in getting 

 close to them, and always so in regard to the nests. These they 

 nuike among a very prickly, spreading, decumbent sort of shrub 

 or small tiee, which grows in the swamps along the water-side 

 in a thick dense mass, and into which it is most tedious and 

 (lithuult to penetrate. The nests overhang the water, so that 

 from the land it is out of the question to get at them. From the 

 water, again, it is a most tedious process. One has to wade, 

 often up to the thighs, through thick mud, at low tide, and to cut 

 a way into the prickly growth ; and then, by pulling down the 

 branch bearing the nest (for it is out of the question to climb), 

 there is a chance of getting the eggs. Often, however, in the 

 process the eggs jerk out ; for tlio nest is {)erfectly shallow and 

 open, coJisisling only of a IV-w sticks loosely dra\>n togclh( r. A I 



