340 Mr. P. E. Lowe on Birds collected 



arrived in the afternoon of the next day at the Grand Cayman 

 Island, and anchored off Georgetown, the capital. Our stay 

 here was limited to twenty-four hours, but in January 1904 

 Sir Frederic Johnstone had previously visited the Caymans 

 in the yacht ' Emerald/ and thanks to this I then had the 

 opportunity^ in company with Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, of 

 making a more extended acquaintance with the many 

 interesting insular forms with which these islands abound. 

 As Mr. Nicoll (^bis/ 1904, pp. 577-589) has lately given a 

 description of the birds he met with there, I simply add 

 some notes on some of the more interesting and peculiar 

 forms. Neither Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, Mr. Nicoll, nor myself 

 succeeded in finding any examples of Mimocichla ravida 

 Cory, a Thrush peculiar to the Grand Cayman ; but I was 

 informed by a squatter who lives on the northern side of the 

 island, which is covered with tall trees and bush, that this 

 bird breeds there and that he knows it well. Neither did 

 we see anything of another bird which Mr. Cory has 

 separated from Icterus leucopteryx of Jamaica and to which 

 he has given the name of Icterus bairdi. I covered a large 

 amount of country where I should naturally have expected 

 to meet with this bird, and I have read Mr. Ridgway's 

 description of it in his ' Birds of North and Middle America' 

 (Mr. llidgway has not seen an example), but I must confess 

 to having some little doubt as to the status of the form. 

 I make this remark because I am of opinion that, in these 

 West Indian islands which are so often visited by hurricanes, 

 when a bird is met with which is evidently quite rare 

 and apparently struggling to exist we ought to feel quite 

 sure that it is not merely a straggler from neighbouring 

 islands or has been introduced, as is the case with Icterus 

 icterus of St, Thomas, which I have found there but which 

 does not differ from typical examples. 



Of the handsome Grand Cayman Parrot [Chrysotis 

 caymanensis Cory), I have never been able to shoot any 

 examples, but I have seen it in the wild state and also in 

 cages. It is quite common on the northern side of the 

 island and is a well-marked species. 



