General Notes. 51 



A note on the Florida f > hoebe. 



Through the kindness of Mr. Outram Hangs of Boston, and Mr. C. J. 

 Maynard of West Newton, and through information received, in litteris, 

 from Mr. William Palmer of Washington I am able to adjust so far as it 

 is possible, with all the data that there is any prospect of obtaining, the 

 relationships of the Florida Phcebe mentioned in "Notes on Various 

 Florida Birds" (Contr. N. Amer. Ornith., Vol. I., May 21, 1902, p. 30). 



In February, 184G, John Gundlach observed near Cardenas, Cuba, a 

 pair of Phu-bes, probably, though he does not state so, shooting both 

 birds, as in his description he mentions peculiarities of both sexes. In 

 1850, Juan Lembeye, in his "Aves de la Isla de Cuba" (p. 41), included 

 the species Muscieapa fuse a Gmel., describing carefully both plumage 

 and habits, evidently from the notes of Gundlach made in 1846 (see 'Pro- 

 logo,' p. 6), and from a specimen No. 169 in the "Col. of Gundl." Later 

 in 1852, Gundlach, in the Boston Journal of Natural History (Vol. VI, 

 p. 314), described, evidently from the same specimen or specimens, an in- 

 sular race, Muscieapa lembeyei, giving as careful description and measure- 

 ments as did Lembeye himself. 



It is evident therefore that Lembeye and Gundlach knew of only one 

 pair of Phoabes to have visited Cuba, and although that island has had 

 little extended ornithological investigation yet, recent collectors have 

 failed to record the species. Mr. Palmer writes me that on his late visit 

 to Cuba he saw a specimen of the Phcebe in the Gundlach museum [prob- 

 ably the same No. 169] but that the "Gundlach cases were so made that 

 it was impossible to get at the birds." 



To recapitulate: It is evident from Lembeye's and Gundlach's de- 

 scriptions that the specimen or specimens they had were either strag- 

 glers from Florida or that the bird is a rare resident of Cuba, and for the 

 resident southern Florida Phoebe there is no alternative but to use Gund- 

 lach's name, provided it is thought the form deserves to be recognized 

 at all. 



When I first examined Mr. Maynard 's series of specimens from Enter- 

 prise, which show the brownish cast of plumage so often characteristic 

 of the peninsular birds, I thought the race one decidedly worth recog- 

 nizing, but a further examination of specimens from Miami and else- 

 where proves that this coloring is not constant, and careful measure- 

 ments also show that the greater size of the Florida bird does not always 

 hold true. 



It may be well to mention now while the subject is under discussion, 

 that the type of Gundlach's lembeyei is without much doubt No. 169 in 

 the Gundlach museum in Cuba, an example probably taken at Cardenas 

 in February, 1846. — Reginald Ileber Howe, Jr. 



