106 Mr. P. L. Sclater's Remarks on 



details as to habits are somewhat scanty, except in some of the 

 more noticeable cases. In the determination of the species. Dr. 

 Leotaud acknowledges the great assistance he has received from 

 Dr. Pucheran of Paris, but he does not state in each individual 

 case, as it would have been advisable to do, whether examples 

 have been submitted to Dr. Pucheran or not. The specific 

 descriptions (in French) are tolerably full and complete ; but on 

 characters are given whereby the genera and higher groups may 

 be recognized. 



Dr. Leotaud commences his volume by some general remarks 

 on the ornithology of Trinidad, alluding, in the first place, to 

 its richness in species, 294 being the number of birds recog- 

 nized in the present work, while Jamaica is stated to possess 

 only 185, and Cuba 129 *. This is justly attributed to the close 

 proximity of Trinidad to the American mainland. Trinidad is, 

 in fact, nothing more or less than a bit of Venezuela, sepa- 

 rated from the adjoining main at a very recent epoch, just 

 as the British Islands have been divided from Europe. As Mr. 

 Taylor has observed, there is probably no species of bird to be 

 met with in Trinidad that is not also found in Venezuela, though 

 many, doubtless, occur in Venezuela which do not extend their 

 range into Trinidad. This is just as is the case with England 

 and the Continent. Dr. Leotaud seems to I'ecognize this fact to 

 a certain extent, though he is still hampered by the notion that 

 Trinidad has something in common with the Antilles (which form 

 a very distinct and isolated province of the Neotropical Region) 

 and North America. He talks of there being twenty species 

 common to the United States and Trinidad ; but when these 

 cases are rightly investigated it will, no doubt, be found that 

 the greater number of these twenty species find their way to 

 Trinidad by Venezuela, and not by direct immigration. Granted 

 that they are all direct winter-visitants to that island from the 

 north, their number is insignificant when compared with that of 

 the purely Neotropical forms, which make up the mass of the 



♦ These estimates are certainly too small, and appear to have been based 

 on the works of Gosse and La Sagra, which have of late years been sup- 

 plemented in each case by the observations of several more recent autho- 

 rities. 



