1877.] 245 [Moore. 



Certhiola flaveola (bahamensis?). I am surprised to find 

 in Dr. Bryant's description [Proc. Bost. Nat. Hist. Soc, Vol. vn, 

 p. 117] of this species no mention of the rich yellow on edge of car- 

 pus, and especially of the conspicuous expanse of the same rich color 

 across the breast and fore belly. I have never seen an adult bird, of 

 either sex, without these marks, here, or at Inagua. 



Again, I must correct Dr. Bryant in regard to the " insect " food 

 extracted from what he called " Verea crenata" on which they are 

 feeding much at the present time (Feb. 3). There is much delicious 

 nectar within the flower of this plant, of which the Certhiola is very 

 fond, and which he has learned to obtain by thrusting its bill through 

 the petals, as Dr. Bryant truly says, at once, into the nectary. Now I 

 have spent much time in examining these flowers, and never, but in 

 one instance, and that of a malformed one, did I find an insect in 

 the nectary until it had been penetrated by the bill of the bird ; after 

 an opening has been made by him, very small black ants, and very 

 small winged insects may be found therein. 



On the 17th of Dec, I found a yellow-bellied woodpecker extract- 

 ing sap, in usual fashion, from a logwood sapling, whose juice is 

 very sweet — quite honey-like. As the Picus varius flew away at my 

 approach, two Certhiolse appeared on the scene, perched near the 

 sap pits, whence the nectarious juice was oozing, and by the cunning 

 use of their pennicillate, or bristly tipped tonges, at once, with amus- 

 ing audacity, commenced to lap, sip, or suck into their mouths the 

 poachers' share of it. This was on the 17th of Dec, and this 

 intrusion upon the woodpecker's domain has been kept up constantly 

 since that time. 



About the 20th of Dec, I made the bowl of a teaspoon fast in a 

 fork of the same tree, three feet below the sap pits, placing some 

 strained honey in it. On the 23d, three days afterward, they found, 

 and at once commenced to feed on this ; not, however, till after 

 another pennicillate, or bristle-tongued bird, Dendrceca tigr'ma, had 

 found it, and habitually visited this new fountain. The D. tigrina 

 had been seen at the woodpecker's sap pits, on the same day as the 

 others, and has continued to the present day (Feb. 3) to feed at the 

 spoon, latterly on sugar and water for four days. Occasionally at the 

 sap pits I have seen Dendrozca coronata, and a species of Anolis has 

 been a regular feeder since the 1 7th of Dec, both at the sap pits and 

 at my spoon of honey, and sugar and water. Two other woodpeck- 

 ers of the same species, female and young male, were at times seen 

 to intrude on their brother's banquet. 



