320 Mr. P. R. Lowe on Birds collected 



my specimens from Blanquilla. My Testigos birds are, 

 however, paler below than those I have obtained in Grenada. 

 Two examples in my collection, one shot by me on Margarita 

 and the other in Tobago, seem to correspond to M. gilvus 

 columbianus. The wings and tails in these birds are notice- 

 ably much longer than in those under discussion. The 

 Tobago Mocking-bird has been distinguished as M. gilvus 

 tobagensis. 



CcEREBA LAUR.E. 



Cvereba laurcB Lowe, Bull. B. O. C. vol. xxi. p. 108 (1908). 



Four males and five females. 



Soon after landing on Testigo Grande 1 was astonished to 

 meet with a black form of this genus similar to Ccereba 

 atrata and C. ivellsi from St. Vincent and Grenada ; and I 

 quickly became aware that it was quite common and well 

 established there, for we soon shot as many specimens 

 as we required, and its nests were everywhere in evidence. 

 Previous to this discovery, an entirely black form of this 

 genus had only been known from the two above-mentioned 

 islands, so that the discovery of one here was of some 

 interest. I have ventured to separate the Testigos bird 

 chiefly on account of the fact that the bright crimson 

 and tumid rictus which is so conspicuous an object in the 

 St. Vincent and Grenada birds, is in this form entirely 

 absent. The bill is also less curved. The fact that the 

 tumid rictus is absent in this form cannot, I think, be put 

 down to a change at the breeding-season, for in some of the 

 examples which I shot the sexual organs were enlarged and 

 the birds were evidently soon about to breed, although I did 

 not find any eggs in several nests I examined, A fortnight 

 before I had found the black Ccereba in St, Vincent and 

 Grenada busily engaged in breeding-operations, and I found 

 both young and eggs on Grenada. The brightly coloured 

 rictus was then a conspicuous feature. The nest of the 

 Testigos bird differs markedly in appearance from that found 

 in the other two islands, a large amount of vegetable down 

 being interwoven into the outside structure. 



