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Show 1871.] MR. P. L. SCLATER ON THE BIRDS OF SANTA LUCIA. 263 1. On the Birds of the Island of Santa Lucia, West Indies. B y P. L. S C L A T E R , M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. [Received March 14,1871.] (Plate XXI.) Our newly elected Corresponding Member Mr. G. W. Des Vceux, Administrator of the Government of Santa Lucia, has most kindly sent to m e a collection of birds formed in that island by the Rev. J. E. Semper, an English clergyman resident there. This collection is one of great interest, as very little is known of the avifauna of Santa Lucia, and every branch of the zoology of the Antilles is worthy of special investigation. Before speaking of it I may be permitted to say a few words on the present state of our knowledge of the birds of the Antilles generally. The West-Indian Islands seem to m e to constitute, as I have on former occasions explained, a distinct subdivision of the Neotropical region, which may be called the Subregio antillensis*. This sub-region is divisible into two portions, which correspond to the two usually recognized divisions of the islands into the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The former of these is characterized by the presence of the remarkable Mammal-forms Soienodon, Capromys, and Plagio-dontia, and by several peculiar types of ornithic life, such as Spin-dalis, Sporadinus, Todus, and Saurothera, which run on as far as Porto Rico, but do not cross into the Lesser Antilles. The latter, if we put the Chiroptera aside, present but few traces of Mammal-life, except one or two species of Agouti (Dasyprocta) and Mouse (Hesperomys), but are tenanted by certain characteristic forms of birds, such as Rhamphocinclus, Cinclocerthia, Orthorhynchus, and Eulampis, which are not known in the Greater Antilles. The ornithology of the Greater Antilles is now tolerably well known to us, although specimens from most of the islands are rare in collections and difficult to obtain. The Lesser Antilles, on the other hand, are still very imperfectly investigated as regards their birds, many of them being, so far as I know, still unvisited by any naturalist or collector. There can be no doubt, however, that every one of them is well worthy of being worked at, and that the results to be obtained from a thorough examination of the whole group would be of great importance towards a more complete knowledge of the laws of distribution. To show how slight our acquaintance is with this subject and how much remains to be done, I will mention the principal islands or island-groups in order, and specify what kind of knowledge we have of their ornithology. * Prof. Baird, in his excellent articles on the distribution and migrations of North-American birds (American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xii.), proposes to make the West Indies a "Eegion" of itself. I do not think that there are sufficient reasons for adopting this course, though there is in its fauna a certain element of autochthonism which does not harmonize very well with either North or South America. |