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Show ORNITHOLOGY OF GUADELOUPE ISLAND, BASED ON NOTES AND COLLECTIONS MADE BY DR. EDWARD PALMER. BY ROBERT RIDGWAY. The small collection of birds transmitted to the National Museum by Dr. Palmer is very interesting, from the fact that every one of the resident species is distinct from any found on the neighboring main- land, although each has a continental representative more or less nearly related. The collection is said to include all the species of land- birds foandon the island, with the exception of a hummingbird, a hawk, and two kinds of owls, no specimens of which were obtained. While the peculiar fades of this local insular fauna is very strongly marked, it is a noteworthy fact that among the Passeres, when there is any similarity to continental forms, the closest resemblance is to the Bocky Mountain or Middle Province races, instead of those of the neighboring Pacific coast. Thus, the Junco, the Thryomanes} and the Carpo-dacus are much more like J. anncctens, T. bewicki leucogaster, and C. frontalis frontalis than J. oregonus, T. bewicki spilurus, and 0. frontalis rhodocolpus of the coast district. It is still more remarkable that the Polyborus should, while distinct from either, be more like the species from southern South America ( P. tluxrus) than that from Lower California and other portions of Middle America ( P. cheriway). It is much to be regretted that the notes accompanying the specimens are so meagre; they only furnish the information that the position of Guadeloupe is between latitude 28° 45' and 29° 10' north, and off the coast of Iiower California, two hundred and twenty miles southwest from Ban Diego. The land- birds ascertained by Dr. Palmer to inhabit the island during the breeding- season are the following:- Fam. SYLVHD^:. 1. Begulus calendula obscurus nobis. Fam. TBOGLODYTEDJE. 2. Salpinctes obsoletus guadeloupensis nobis. 3. Thryomanes brevicauda nobis. Fam. FRINGILLID^. 4. Carpodacus ampins nobis. 5. Junco insularis nobis. 6. Pipilo maculatus consobrinus nobis. Fam. TROCHILID^:. 7 1 ( Unidentified.) 183 |
