392 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



days, March 24-26, spent at Choco, a small settlement in the hills a 

 few miles south of Sosua. 



Although Santo Domingo is the oldest known land in the western 

 hemisphere its bird-life has never received the study that has been 

 accorded the other islands of the Greater Antilles. The first pub- 

 lished accounts (Historia General y Natural de las Indias, Servilla, 

 1535), are by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes who accom- 

 panied Columbus on all his voyages. 



Book XIV Chapter I, contains a description of a Tropic bird 

 {Phaethon catesbyi Brandt) met with on the voyage between Spain 

 and the new world. Thus the Yellow-billed Tropic bird has the dis- 

 tinction of being the first new world species mentioned in literature. 



Book XIV Chapter II, treats of birds found in "Espanola" (Santo 

 Domingo) similar to those in Spain, mentioning many "torczaas" 

 (doves) and tortolas (Turtle Dove) of three or four kinds .... " and 

 swallows larger than those of Spain lacking the red on the neck and 

 head and with a forked tail" (doubtless Progne dominicensis) . 



" And here there are also swifts in great numbers and large herons 

 and lesser herons and falcons, agile and handsome, somewhat blacker 

 than those of Spain and Italy. Also large and very beautiful gos- 

 hawks and small eagles and guaraguaos [large hawks] the like of which 

 are not in Spain. Then also there are barn owls and many kinds of 

 water eagles as also .... gaviotas (terns) gavinas (gulls), calamones [the 

 water hen of Spain = Gallinula chloropus] cernicalos [Sparrow Hawk] 

 and carpinteros [woodpeckers] .... There are many ansares [ducks] 

 and these pass through the island in December. Other birds are found 

 like those which sing so well in Spain, but their names are not known. 

 But among these are ruysenores [nightingales == mockingbirds]. 



" All these birds of which I have made mention in this chapter are 

 natives of the island as well as of Spain, but on the mainland there are 

 these and many others in abundance."^ 



Book XIV, Chapter IV deals with birds which are found in " Espa- 

 fiola" but not in Spain. Oviedo says, "There are many parrots, 



green, the size of or larger than doves The smaller ones with 



long tails .... they call xaxabes . . . . " The truth is that there are also 

 some little green birds not larger than the xilgueritos [little linnets] 

 of Castilla . . . . " There are also some little birds as black as black 

 velvet [probably Antkracothorax dominicus] . . . . " Theiie are other 

 birds of many colors with different voices and different methods of 



I Madrid, 1851. Translations by Dr. Thomas Barbour and the author. 



