346 Mr. D. G. Elliot on the 



lisbed ill the Zoological Society's 'Proceedings' for last year ; 

 it will suffice for me to say that, of all the West- Indian Is- 

 lands, we have more or less complete information of the birds 

 inhabiting the following islands only : — Nassau and Long 

 Island of the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, St. Domingo, Porto 

 Rico, St. Thomas, Sombrero, Ste. Croix, St. Bartholomew, 

 Dominica, Martinique, and Santa Lucia. Guadaloupe and St. 

 Vincent possessed resident naturalists; but only fragmentary 

 accounts of their avifauna have ever been published. Here, 

 then, out of the very great number of islands comprising the 

 group known as the West Indies, from only thirteen have 

 ornithologists obtained any information ; and that from some 

 of even them is of a most unsatisfactory description. I do not 

 pretend, therefore, in this paper to be able to give the complete 

 geographical distribution of the Trochilidse of the West Indies, but 

 am merely able to add to what is already known certain other 

 localities regarding which we have of late obtained information. 

 A peculiarity that is remarkable of this group is the fact that cer- 

 tain islands contain species not met with elsewhere, and that but 

 few species of those found in the West Indies are ever seen upon 

 the continent of either North or South America. It will be under- 

 stood that in speaking of the West Indies, I do not include the 

 islands of Tobago and Trinidad, whose fauna is more that of the 

 neighbouring portion of South America than of the scattered 

 islands lying to the northward. 



The two islands of the Bahamas mentioned in this paper contain 

 each a distinct species oiDoricha, a genus not found in any other 

 of the West Indies, and the only representatives of which are to 

 be met with in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Veragua. 

 Cuba, besides being visited by the migratory Trochilus colubris, 

 has two species peculiar to itself, Calypte helence and Sporadinus 

 ricordi, the last a genus only found in the Greater Antilles except 

 Jamaica. This latter island possesses three species, two of 

 which, however, are not found elsewhere; and the third, which 

 is the smallest Humming-bird known, and incapable, it would 

 seem, of any continued flight, is nevertheless an inhabitant of St. 

 Domingo. This would seem to show that at one period those 

 two islands were only one, and that this little species, the Mel- 



