ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF THE CARIBBEE ISLANDS. 



By F. A. Obee. 



The first week in December, 1876, I left New York in a small vessel 

 for Martinique, situated in latitude 15° IST. The usual passage is less 

 than twenty days, but, owing to unskillful navigation, our vessel was 

 stranded on the Bomunda reefs, and we were detained a month for re- 

 pairs, not reaching Martinique until January 25, 1877. Learning that 

 the island of Dominica, 30 miles to the northward, would be likely to 

 give better results than Martinique, I sailed for that island in a small 

 native sloop, landing at Eoseau, the principal town, the 1st of February. 

 Owing to unavoidable delays I did not reach any important collect- 

 ing ground until the 1st of March, thus losing the tirst two months of 

 the year in which fine weather generally i)revails. 



To properly understand the fauna of the Caribbean group, it should be 

 borne in mind that, between the degrees of 12° and 18° north latitude, 

 all the principal islands, excejit Antigua and Barbuda in the north, and 

 Barbados away to the eastward, are volcanic, consisting mainly of high 

 hills and mountains. The general resemblance strikes one forcibly as 

 he sails along this chain of islands ; each one like a huge rock thrown 

 ni) from the ocean depths, terminating either in a single peak or spHt 

 into a succession of mountain peaks and hills. In Dominica is the high- 

 est mountain south of Jamaica, in the West Indies, "Monte Diablotin," 

 being above 5,000 feet in height. A slight sketch of the prevailing 

 characteristics of the vegetation of this island wiU answer for all the 

 volcanic islands. 



There are, as it were, three zones or belts of vegetation, viz : that of the 

 coast; that of the higher hills and lower mountains; that of the mountain 

 tops. The first-named contains the plantations, upon which are found but 

 few birds of any kind, owing to the absence of trees. The second contains 

 all that is luxuriant in tropical vegetable life, and is especially peculiar in 

 being the zone in which are first found the tree ferns and the forest of 

 huge trees known as the " high woods." It may be roughly estimated as 

 located between 500 and 2,500 feet above sea-level. Where an opening 

 occurs for the sun to penetrate, animal life will be found more abundant 

 than in the lower region. This I soon ascertained, and established my- 

 self in an opening in the forest where a sloping strip of land had been 

 cleared of trees, about 1,500 feet above the Caribbean Sea, which it over- 

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