during a Cruise in the Caribbean Sea. 309 



CffiREBA SACCHARINA (Lawr.). 



This bird seems to be in much greater danger of extinction 

 than either of the previous two forms. I have only seen 

 one specimen on the island of St. Vincent, where it appears 

 to have been entirely ousted by C. atrata (Lawr.), a peculiar 

 black form of this genus. It is becoming very rare, too, 

 on Grenada. On our last visit to that island we did not 

 see a single example, while on former occasions I obtained 

 four. Mr. Austin Clark states, however, that it is common 

 on the Grenadines. 



Mr. Ridgway has suggested (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. vol. viii. 

 1885, p. 28) tiiat the two black forms of this genus found 

 in St. Vincent and Grenada may prove to be merely phases 

 of the normally coloured birds ((7. saccharina) inhabiting 

 the same island ; but there does not seem to be very much 

 evidence in support of his contention. 



I have lately found another black form well established 

 on the islands of Los Testigos, Venezuela (see below), 

 where C. saccharina is conspicuous by its absence. If this 

 black form is also merely a melanistic phase, as Mr. Ridgway 

 would have it, it must be a phase of C. luteola ; but it is 

 strange that we do not find black phases on the mainland 

 or in any other of the Antillean or Caribbean islands, 

 C. luteola is the form which occurs on Margarita. 



CoTiLE RiPARiA (Linn.). 



A number of these Bank-Swallows were *' hawking" 

 about in pursuit of insects on the top of the Souft'riere, 

 some little way below the crater, but a long way above 

 the zone of present vegetation. Unfortunately, in my 

 ascent of the volcano I had left my collecting-gun behind 

 where the vegetation ceased, and so could not procure a 

 specimen for identification. The birds were flying very 

 low, skimming backwards and forwards over the ground 

 and passing continually within a few feet of us, so that 

 I was able to get a perfectly good view of them. My 

 notes, taken at the time, state that they " were of a light 

 sandy colour above, with lighter rumps and white under 



SER. IX. VOL. HI, Y 



