Todd: Orni ihoi-ciov oi- I^ahama Islands. 389 



cays, and the water-birds in general are with but few excejitions s])arscly 

 rejiresented in his collections. Of the endemic land-birds, howexer, 

 all but li\e sjiecies are included, as well as a fair rejjresentation of the 

 winter residents and transient \isitants. In all there are five hundred 

 and ninety-one l)eautifully jirepared specimens, which are now the 

 propert>- of the Carnegie Museum, excci)ting forty-three skins retained 

 by the collector for himself. The entire collection, howe\'er, made 

 between December 28, 1908, and May 8, 1909, has been available 

 for the preparation of the present report. 



The critical stud}' and conijiarison of this material, supplemented 

 in many cases by additional specimens from other sources, has thrown 

 new light upon the status and relalionsliips of a number of the Bahaman 

 forms, concerning some of which there seems to have been considerable 

 misapprehension. The conclusions and results set forth herewith, 

 although they may possibly not prove acceptable to such ornithol- 

 ogists as find it incumbent to give nomenclatural recognition to every 

 trifling variation exhibited, have been conscientiously and (it is 

 hoped) consistently worked out, with due regard to scientific standards. 

 In several instances, where the available material was inadequate, 

 no formal changes in the generally accepted nomenclature have ac- 

 tually been made, although doubts have been freely expressed. Some 

 attention has been given to the sequence of plumages in certain of 

 the species, and to other variations. 



In a paper of the present scope it would be manifestly superfluous 

 to attempt any comprehensive review of the literature of Bahaman 

 birds, this having already been so well done by Mr. Joseph H. Riley 

 (in Shattuck, The Bahama Islands, 1905, 347-350). Mr. Riley has 

 also discussed in outline the zoogeographical position of the Bahamas, 

 adopting Mr. Frank I\I. Chapman's conclusions originally published 

 in the American Naturalist, XX\\ 1891, 528-539. Mr. Riley seems 

 to have been the first to claim distinct faunal rank for the southern 

 islands of the group as discriminated from those to the northwest, 

 but aside from this no detailed analysis of the distribution of the 

 Bahaman avifauna seems to have yet been attempted, so that it may 

 be well to consider the question further. Two hundred and two 

 species (including subspecies) of birds have now been recorded from 

 the Bahamas, two of which ( Colinus virginianus jioridanus and 

 Passer domesticus) have evidently been introduced by human agency 

 within recent times, leaving an even two hundred species native to 



