506 Mr. J. Ijewis Bonhote on Birds 



XLIII. — A List of Birds collected on the Island of New 

 Providence, Bahamas. By J. Lewis Bonhote. 



The following is a list of birds collected or observed on the 

 island of New Providence, where the writer stayed for about 

 a year. The island contains a few scattered settlements 

 besides Nassau, the capital o£ the Bahamas, a town of about 

 14,000 inhabitants ; but, except for some sisal plantations 

 on the north side and small plots round the settlements, the 

 soil is uncultivated. On the south side are lai'ge tracts of 

 wood known as pine-barrens, where there is hardly any 

 vegetation except pine-ti'ees, palmetto, and bracken, which 

 practically grow on the bare rock ; the remainder of the 

 island, where there is a little more soil, being covered with 

 thick dense bush some 20 feet high. The rock is coral- 

 limestone, with a very uneven surface, full of holes, some 

 of which are very large and deep, containing fresh water, 

 which rises and falls with the tide, and with very sharp 

 angular edges; the only soil found is that which has accu- 

 mulated in these pockets. Short heavy showers are frequent 

 during the greater part of the year, but May and September 

 are the months when most rain falls. As might be expected 

 in a locality so near the American coast, the bird-fauna, 

 compared, with that of many other parts of the world, is well 

 known, and it is not to be anticipated that many more new 

 species will be found ; nevertheless little or nothing is known 

 of the habits, eggs, &c. of several species peculiar to the 

 Bahamas, and good work may be done in extending the range 

 of many well-known American species. The present collection 

 contains three or four species not hitherto recorded from New 

 Providence, and one species, Pyranga cestiva, hitherto only 

 doubtfully recorded from Cuba, so far as the West Indies are 

 concerned. Species identified, but of which no specimens 

 were procured, are placed in brackets. 



1. MiMocicHLA PLUMBEA (Linn.). 



Mimocichla jjlumbea Cory, Birds Bahamas, p. 45 (1880) ; 

 id. Auk, 1891, p. 294 ; Ridgw. Auk, 1891, p. 335 ; Cory, Cat. 

 W. Ind. Birds, p. 122 (1892). 



