186 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, 



•' Like the otbcr islands of the chain, it has a longitudinal axis in the 

 shape of a range of hills extending its entire length. Here and there 

 are peaks approaching the dignity of mountains, the highest about 3,000 

 feet. In the northern i)art is the famous ' Souffriere', a mountain with 

 a crater a mile in diameter, a slumbering volcano which, in 1812, by a 

 tremendous eruption, spread havoc and ruin all around it. Before this 

 eruption, the mountain was probably much higher than at present, as 

 the top was blown completely off and a new crater opene<l. Evidence 

 of its work may be seen, at the present day in the deep gullies scooped 

 out of the mountain side and the plain beneath by the lava flow in its 

 great rush to the sea. I counted five of these dry rivers in sailing along 

 the leeward coast. The most extensive is on the windward coast, at 

 least 300 yards in width. 



" St. Vincent has more cultivable land than Dominica, owing to the 

 windward side sloping gradually from the foot hills to the sea, a tract 

 from one to two miles in width of undulating surface, though rough and 

 elevated in places. 



"As will be seen, the avifauna resembles much that of Dominica — 

 some birds of the same species in greater or less abundance, a few re- 

 placed by others of near affinity, and one or two new forms. 



" The Island Parrot Chrysotis guildingi is peculiar to this island, but 

 I doubt if there are other birds whose habitat is restricted to this small 

 range. Were I possessed of all the information I hope to get by the 

 time my investigations are completed, I might speak of the peculiarity 

 of these insular faunae, by which I find, in islands separated by a nar- 

 row breadth of water — say. from 15 to 30 miles — birds found in one that 

 never visit the other. Notable examples could be given, but I wish to 

 speak authoritatively and from more extended experience. 



" It is strange that in an island more than two degrees south of 

 Dominica, I find so little difference in the plumage of birds; hardly 

 any increase of those tropical species of bright plumage, which are so 

 abundant further south in Tobago and Trinidad. In fact, so far as the 

 fauna of each island is concerned, and in external character of surface 

 and soil, and even in the component elements of the latter, Dominica 

 and St. Vincent could scarcely be more alike. To a superficial observer 

 these facts are apparent, as well as to one who studies them. 



" In numbers, as well as in species, this island is greatly deficient. To 

 what cause to attribute this disparity when tiie forests and fields teem 

 with bird-food, and islands further south teem with birds, I am at a 

 loss. Perhaps the reason niay appear later, in the iirocess of careful 

 investigation. 



"The most striking instance of the absence of any particular form or 

 family, is that of the Picidie. (Jountless tiees, decaying and dead, under 

 the influence of a never-ceasing destructive power, which would afford 

 food for thousands of birds; which are infested and alive with ants, 

 borers, &c., found in every forest. Not a woodpecker; millions of nut- 



