376 Messrs. A. and E. Newton's Observations 



aurulentus (Vieill.) from St. Domingo and Porto Rico, with 

 which Mr. Gouhl has allowed us to compare them. But we are 

 far from thinking that the number of species of Trochilidie found 

 in St. Thomas is so great as would appear from what M. Ledru 

 says, even according to the most moderate interpretation of his 

 words ; and we venture to suggest that it is swollen from his 

 having taken as specific distinctions the different states of 

 plumage dependent upon age, sex, and perhaps season, assumed 

 by the Humming-birds which we know to exist there. It may 

 be worth remarking that there is a dealer in bird- skins in that 

 island, whose endeavours to provide purchasers with what they 

 may desire, rather than with what actually occur, are quite 

 as unremitting as those of some of his paler-faced professional 

 brethren in Europe ; and we now have in our possession skins 

 of Petasopho7-a cyanotis and Erythronota felicue (Boure.) said 

 by him to have been obtained in St. Thomas, but which were, 

 doubtless, imported from their native regions on the shores of 

 the Spanish Main. 



M. Ledru's list concludes with — 



" Un todier, nomrae vulgairement perroquet de terre" of 

 which we can only say that we know nothing. 



Mr. John P. Knox, in the little work we before quoted from, 

 devotes a chapter to the Natural History of St. Thomas, in 

 which he gives a slight sketch of its Ornithology (Hist. Ace. 

 St. Thos., p. 220), the greater part being copied from Ledru's 

 work. He begins with a quaint account of the " Ani or Black 

 Witch,'' Crotophaga ani (No. 22), and goes on to tell us that, 

 besides the "Parson Sparrow," Phonipara hicolor (No. 21), 

 " there is also another sparrow ; but its name is unknown : " a 

 species on which we can throw no light. He adds to the 

 information supplied by Ledru respecting "the Yellow-neck 

 (Matacella [sic] pensilis)," that "it is destructive to grapes," 

 and speaks of " the Thrush, one or two species," including therein 

 Cichlherminia fuscata (No. 10), as we gather from the context. 

 He then states (p. 221) that "a species of parrot and a little 

 parroquet (Psittacus tui) are found quite abundant near 

 Havensigt." This latter is doubtless the Conurus xanthohemus 

 just mentioned ; but we are at present ignorant of the former, 

 though we believe there is such a species to be found, and it 



