296 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1951 



and St. Kitts. Agoutis occur, or did until recently, on practically 

 all the islands as far as St. Thomas. Musk rats {Megalomys) are 

 found only on Tobago, St. Lucia, and Martinique, with a fossil species 

 on Barbados. The rice rat in the Lesser Antilles is related to one in 

 adjacent South America. There is a spiny rat {Loncheres) on Marti- 

 nique. Manatees, once common in suitable localities along the coasts 

 and about the larger islands, including Guadeloupe, are now rare. 

 The West Indian seal, a close relative of the Mediterranean seal, for- 

 merly common and widely distributed, is now found only on some small 

 islands off Yucatan. Many West Indian mammals have wholly dis- 

 appeared since the settlement of the islands by Europeans. 



The birds of Central America are very numerous. Nearly all are 

 of types now found in South America, but there is an extraordinary 

 number of endemic genera in almost all groups, especially in the hum- 

 mingbirds, finches, and flycatchers. The best-known bird confined 

 to Central America and found chiefly in Costa Rica is the quetzal, 

 the most magnificent of all the colorful trogons. There is a marked 

 zonal distribution in Central America and, chiefly at the higher alti- 

 tudes, several North American birds occur, such as evening grosbeaks, 

 crossbills, goldfinches, and others. Very many North American species 

 pass the winter in Central America and the West Indies and farther 

 south. 



In the West Indies there are 32 genera of birds confined to the 

 Greater Antilles and 8 to the Lesser. Two distinct families are wholly 

 West Indian, the palm chats (Dulidae) of Haiti and the todies (Todi- 

 dae) of Cuba, Isle of Pines, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Haiti. Zonal 

 distribution is found only on Haiti where the white- winged crossbill, 

 Andean sparrow, and Antillean goldfinch occur at the higher altitudes. 

 Some characteristic West Indian birds live on the islands off the Yuca- 

 tan coast, on Curasao, Aruba, and Bonaire, and on Tobago. Among 

 the more interesting West Indian birds are Princess Helen's humming- 

 bird of Cuba, smallest of all birds, 23/8 inches in total length; two 

 genera of Lesser Antillean hummingbirds {Eulamjns and Sericotes) 

 in which both sexes are similarly colored and equally brilliant ; a co- 

 tinga on Jamaica ; endemic types of trogons on Cuba and Haiti ; and 

 very distinctive large parrots on St. Vincent and Dominica; other 

 parrots live on St. Lucia, Dominica, and in the Greater Antilles. In 

 former times distinctive macaws occurred on Cuba, Jamaica, Guade- 

 loupe, Dominica, and Martinique, and probably on Haiti. In addition 

 to these, other West Indian birds have disappeared since the coming 

 of Europeans. 



The reptiles of Central America and the West Indies are numerous. 

 The turtles are all North American. The family Dermatemydidae, 

 now confined to Guatemala and adjacent areas, is found as a fossil in 



