CISTOTHORUS. 149 



From a careful examination of the data furnished by the tables 

 and indications of localities in the preceding pages, it will be seen 

 that a few species, as Tardus mustelinus, fuscescens, swainsoni, 

 alicise, and migratorius, Galeoscoptes carolinensis, Mimus polyglot- 

 tus ? of the Turdidse, with Sialia sialis, of the Saxicolidx, and Poli- 

 optila caerulea of the Sylviidse occur in the West Indies as winter 

 visitors. The remaining species of these families (except some 

 peculiar to the islands), with the whole of the Ginclidse, Paridse, 

 Certhiaa^^, and Troglodxjtidse, are entirely wanting. Even the 

 species just named appear to be confined to Cuba — none of them 

 occurring, as far as known, in Jamaica or the other islands, and 

 probably visiting Cuba only as stragglers from Florida, or en route 

 to Mexico and Guatemala via Yucatan. 



Of the Turdidse there are several genera peculiar to one or other 

 of the West India Islands. Of North American genera, Mimus has 

 peculiar species in the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and St. Domingo, 

 and Polioptila in Cuba. 



It will be seen hereafter that these generalizations of distribution 

 are widely different from what prevails among the Syhncolidse, a 

 much larger proportion of the species being spread in winter over 

 many of the West Indies, with several resident species peculiar lo 

 one or more of the group. 



Thryothorus albinucha. — Since the preceding sheets on the 

 Troglodytidse were printed, I have had the opportunity of exam- 

 ining the type specimen of Dr. Cabot's T?-oglodytes albinucha^ 

 Pr. Bost. N. H. Soc. II, 1847, 258, from Yalahao, Yucatan, April] 

 1842. I find it agrees almost exactly in size and proportions with 

 Thryothorus petenicus of Mr. Salvin, being only a very little smaller. 

 The coloration and markings are precisely similar, the only difference 

 being in the tail. The middle (exposed) feathers in jjefenicus are ashy 

 brown, with spotted or broken bars of black, most distinct and con- 

 tinuous across the middle. The other feathers are black ; the exterior 

 webs of the outer two and the ends of outer three marked with quad- 

 rate spots of whitish, sometimes tinged with plumbeous. In albinucha 

 the upper surface of the tail has a slightly more reddish tinge, and 

 the bars are more broken and irregular. The quadrate whitish or 

 grayish blotches on the inner webs of lateral tail feathers extend 

 nearly to the middle of the feather, instead of being confined to the 

 tips. I do not observe any trace of the dusky tips to the feathers of 

 breast, nor of the obscure dusky bars on the flanks seen in petenicus. 



These differences are, however, not incompatible with the identity 

 10* October, 1864. ' 



