394 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



3. Species obviously of Cuban origin, as for instance Riccordia 

 ricordii, Centuriis nyeamis, and Saurothera bnhamensis, with their 

 respective subspecies. So far as Cuban forms are concerned, it is very 

 doubtful if Great Inagua has to any extent "served as a gateway for 

 many species of West Indian origin which are now distributed through- 

 out the Bahamas," as suggested by Mr. Chapman in his paper above 

 mentioned. Although in the case of forms of such general distri- 

 bution throughout the islands as Myiarchus sagrce lucnysiensis, 

 Dendroica petechia flaviceps, etc., there is no clue to the original place 

 of entrance, it seems quite evident that certain other forms have gone 

 from Cuba directly to the northern Bahamas, and thence spread more or 

 less extensively over the group. Under such circumstances the 

 probabilities are strongly in favor of nearly all the species belonging 

 to this class having reached the Bahamas by way of the northern- 

 most islands, rather than by way of Great Inagua, which island was 

 probably about the last to be reached. 



4. Species which have reached the northern Bahamas from Mexico 

 and Central America, and have spread more or less extensively to 

 the southeastward, as for example Icterus northropi, Vireo crassi- 

 rostris, and Nesophlox evelynce. 



5. Species which have apparently been derived from the neigh- 

 boring Peninsula of Florida. • This element, which is not so large 

 as might be anticipated, is illustrated by Agelaiiijs phceniceus hryanti, 

 Dryohatcs villosus maynardi, D. v. piger, and Sitta pitsilla, and is 

 likewise more pronounced in the northwestern islands. As pointed 

 out by Mr. Riley, " the fact must not be lost sight of that several 

 birds of extreme southern Florida, where the same conditions are said 

 to prevail as in the Bahamas, have reached there probably by way 

 of the Bahamas and not vice versa.'' In the judgment of the writer 

 this statement should be extended to include a number of additional 

 species which are not confined to southern Florida. 



In explanation of the seemingly fortuitous occurrence in the Ba- 

 hamas of so many species of more or less obvious Cuban and Central 

 American origin, and of the anomalous circumstance that in nearly 

 every case sUch have apparently entered the islands from the north- 

 western extremity, spreading thence to the southeastward, it is 

 suggested that the course of the Gulf Stream, which sweeps close by 

 Great Bahama and Andros, may have been a factor in the populating 

 of these islands by strays from more southern regions. The part 



