BIRDS OF THE BAHAMA ISLANDS. 
201 
anything, and it was necessary to force food down their throats to 
keep them alive ; but after a time they began to eat of their own 
accord, and after that we had no further trouble with them other- 
wise than to furnish them with sufficient food, which it was not 
always easy to do. Upon being approached, they snapped their bills 
loudly, at. the same time uttering a sharp whistling noise. 
Dr. Bryant gives an interesting account of their breeding habits. 
He says, “ I found a few Man-of-War Birds breeding at the Biminis; 
their nests were placed upon the mangroves, amidst those of the 
Brown Pelican and Florida Cormorant. As these birds are much 
disturbed by the inhabitants, their breeding-places will probably be 
given up in a few years. On the central and highest part of Booby 
Key, a colony of about two hundred pairs was breeding. The nests 
here were on the bare rock, and closely grouped together, the whole 
not occupying a space more than forty feet square. There were 
no Boobies amongst them, though thousands were, breeding on the 
key. The largest breeding-place visited by me is situated on Seal 
Island, one of the Ragged Island keys, and is five or six acres in 
extent. The nests, thickly crowded together, were placed on the 
tops of prickly-pear, which covered the ground with an almost 
impenetrable thicket. On the 8th of April the young were hatched 
in half of the nests, the largest about one third grown; the other 
nests contained eggs more or less hatched. Out of many hundreds, 
I procured only seven that were freshly laid. 
“ I have visited the breeding-places of many sea birds before, and 
some well worth the trouble, but none so interesting to me as this. 
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