1917-] Recently published OrnithotogicalWoi'ks. 105 



wliielij from Lafresnaye's collection, is now at Cambridge, 

 Mass. 



One of Mr. Noble^s chief reasons for visiting Guadeloupe 

 was to obtain some information about the Black-capped 

 Petrel, known locally as the Diablotin {yEstrelata hcesitata), 

 whicli formerly bred on that island, but is now believed to 

 be extinct. An old negro, who formerly used to hunt the 

 birds when they came to the mountains to breed, asserted 

 that they had not been seen on the island since the great 

 earthquake of 1847, and certainly Mr. Noble had no success 

 in obtaining specimens. On returning to Cambridge, how- 

 ever, Mr. Noble learnt that there were two pairs in the 

 collection of the Museum ; these had been collected by a 

 well-known Guadeloupe naturalist named L'llerminier in 

 1842 for Lafresnaye in Paris. He found, as M. L^ Her- 

 minier had previously stated, that these two pairs repre- 

 sented what were undoubtedly two distinct species, differing 

 in size and in the shape and coloration of the nostril tubes. 

 After much consideration and research, Mr. Noble has 

 come to the conclusion that the larger of these two Dusky 

 Petrels must be known as ^Estrelata diabolica (Lafres.), 

 and the smaller as ^. hasitata (Kuhl), and that they both 

 formerly nested on the Soufriere of Guadeloupe, but at 

 different elevations and at different seasons. The Diablotin 

 is said to have nested also on the neighbouring island of 

 Dominica, but of this there seems no authentic record. 

 The British Museum contains only one example of the 

 species, said to have been obtained at or near Hayti many 

 years ago. 



The Grassquit of Grenada, St. Vincent, and Barbados is 

 found by Mr. Noble to be distinct from that occurring in 

 Guadeloupe and the more northern Antilles, and is described 

 as a new subspecies under the name of Tiaris bicolor expec- 

 tata. 



Policy on the Bird-life of Geneva. 



[Notes oruithologiques de Louis Albert Necker de Saussure (Allant 

 de Mars 1803 a Octobre 1838). Communiqii^es par sou Petit-Neveu 



