Mr. 0. Salvin on the Sea-birds of British Honduras . 375 
mostly deserted, all the young ones of those still inhabited being 
able to run out along the branches and make their escape. The 
nests were composed entirely of sticks, and placed near the end 
of a horizontal bough. With an eye to dinner, we paddled 
quietly on, while Joe, spear in hand, kept a sharp look-out for 
fish, a favourite lurking-place for some species being the tangled 
roots of the mangroves. The Man-of-war Birds, as well as the 
Gaulins, showed preference for the leeward side, the former 
occupying the highest mangroves on the island. Old nests 
and decayed boughs, accumulated on the oozing mud, had made 
a patch of ground just under where the nests were. For this we 
paddled, and, on landing, shot four old birds—two adult males 
in dark metallic chocolate-brown plumage, and two with white 
underneath, the adult females; no white-headed immature birds" 
were to be seen. These secured and stowed away in the dorey, 
we began to scale the trees. Joe climbed the first, and found an 
egg, of which I entreated him to take all possible care. “ Treat 
him kind/ 1 shouted I. “Don't be afraid, massa,” replied Joe; 
but Master Joe, on reaching the bottom of the tree, managed to 
knock the egg against a branch and broke it to bits. “ Quite 
rotten, sar," says Joe, by way of apology. Gladly would I have 
had a rotten egg to blow, or a chipping shell! But, like the spilt 
milk, there was no help for it; so, after trying to impress more 
care on the delinquent Joe, I climbed the next tree myself. It 
was a curious sight, on thrusting one’s head out of the top of a 
tree, to watch the inhabitants around. Three-fourths of the nests 
had young birds in them, of various ages: the more advanced were 
commencing to shoot their scapular feathers; others, younger, 
looked like puff-balls of pure white; while those which had just 
escaped from the shell were lying helplessly, as young birds do, 
on the frail structure of sticks composing their nests. So slight 
were these, that the young in their earliest infancy must have a 
perilous time of it. The youngest were guarded by one of the 
parent-birds, which balanced itself on the edge of the nest. From 
the unhatched eggs the birds could hardly be prevailed upon to 
stir. I have several times noticed this reluctance on the part of 
birds building open nests to leave their eggs exposed to the 
direct rays of the tropical sun, whereas on cloudy days the same 
