BIRDS OF CUBA lOI 



185. Empidonax virescens (Vieillot). 

 Acadian Flycatcher. 



A rare accidental visitor, occasionally met with in autumn or in spring. 



186. Mimus polyglottos orpheus (Linne). 

 Cuban Mockingbird; Sinsonte. 



Formerly, according to Gundlach, more common along the south 

 coast than the north, today it is abundant everywhere, except in hilly 

 country. It is preeminently a bird of the plains, of open fields and wide 

 savannas. In March its nesting season begins, and then the males commence 

 their chorus of long and varied song, so gay and bubbling over with sprightly 

 energy that they are universal Cuban favorites as cage-birds, and many 

 are caught for export as well. In habits and nesting they are much like our 

 familiar North American species, and one observes no very noteworthy 

 difference — beyond its smaller and lighter appearance and perhaps a 

 rather softer and even more varied song. 



In my large series of skins I have a few from the region of Nipe Bay, 

 which closely approach the race elegans of Inagua in characters which set 

 them off sharply from other Cuban birds. One wonders whether perhaps 

 a colony of stragglers from the southern Bahamas may not have reached 

 this district fortuitously and by interbreeding have affected the orpheus 

 stock resident there. It is worth adding here also, that W. Cameron Forbes 

 shot two Bahama Swallows from a flock at Nipe Bay, the only station 

 outside the Archipelago where they ever have been found. 



187. Mimus gundlachii gundlachii Cabanis. 

 Gundlach's Mockingbird; Sinsonte Prieto. 



Beyond the fact that this species occurs on the cays of the northern 

 coast, opposite Caibarien and San Juan de los Perros, I know nothing of 



