74 Mr. E.G. Taylor on the Birds of the West Indies. 



till March 24th. During that time I made two separate excur- 

 sions on the mainland of South America, each of which occu- 

 pied a fortnight. The first was by steamboat 300 miles up the. 

 Orinoco^ to the important town of Ciudad Bolivar, or Angostura 

 as it w^as formerly called. The second was also by steamboat 

 down the coast of Venezuela to La Guaira, the port of Caracas, 

 the capital of that republic ; whence I rode up to Caracas, and 

 stayed there a few days. En loute both to and from La Guaira, 

 we touched at the ports of Carapano, Pampator (in the island of 

 Margarita), Cumana, and Barcelona, staying at each a sufficient 

 time to enable me to go ashore and make a brief investigation 

 of the birds to be seen in those localities. After finally taking 

 my departure from Trinidad on March 24th, I visited the islands 

 of Martinique, Dominica, and Porto Rico, staying a fortnight in 

 each. In all, I spent five months in the West Indies, during 

 the whole of which time I devoted myself pretty steadily to bird- 

 collecting and the study of West Indian ornithology. The re- 

 sult of my labours I now propose to lay before the readers of 

 ' The Ibis' in tw^o articles, the first devoted to Trinidad and the 

 main, the second to the islands of Martinique, Dominica, and 

 Porto Rico. 



Trinidad is a large island, its average length being 50 miles, 

 its average breadth 35 miles, and its area over 2000 square miles. 

 It is the most southern of the British West Indian Islands. It 

 lies between 10° and 11° of N. lat., and 61° and 62° of W. long. 

 On the west it is separated from the mainland of Venezuela by 

 the shallow lagoon called the Gulf of Pai'ia; on the south it is 

 divided by a comparatively narrow channel of deeper water from 

 the vast swamps of the Orinoco delta; on the east and north it 

 is bounded by the open sea. In its general appearance Trinidad 

 bears no resemblance whatever to the volcanic islands of the 

 lesser Antilles ; it seems rather a detached portion of the adja- 

 cent continent. Its general surface is pretty level, with a range 

 of mountains along the north coast which attain a maximum 

 elevation of 3000 feet, a much lower range of hills along 

 the south coast, and a boss of low hills in the centre of the 

 island. The north-coast range corresponds with the chain of 

 mountains extending along the north coast of Venezuela, which 



