Shufeldt: Birds from Bermuda. 345 



invitation he kindly accepted. In a few days thereafter he submitted 

 me the following communication on the subject, which is valuable, to 

 the point, and here published in e.rtcnso: 



" Smithsonian Institution. 



" United States National Museum. 



" Washington, D. C. 



" November 2, 191 5. 

 " Dr. R. W. Shufeldt^ 

 " 3356 Eighteenth St., 

 " Washington, D. C. 



"Dear Dr. Shufeldt: Before reaching a conclusion based directly 

 upon the examination of the bird skeletons from Bermuda which you 

 recently showed me, it is well to review the information at hand 

 regarding the comparable elements in the avifauna of the West India 

 islands further to the south, islands in their marine fauna (upon which 

 the sea-birds are dependent for their existence) not essentially dif- 

 ferent from Bermuda. 



" Aside from the shore-birds and gulls, gannets. tropic-birds, etc.^ 

 which may at once be excluded from consideration, we find that 

 Guadeloupe originally supported at least two. and possibly three,, 

 species of shearwaters, (i) Pitffinus Iherminieri {^Puffinus auditboni 

 auct.) and (2) JEstrclata caribbcra {=Atstrelata jamaiccnsis auct.) ; 

 certain evidence seems to point to the occurrence of another, white 

 breasted, species of JEstrelata. which may have been /Estrelata Iiasi- 

 fata. The famous ' Diablotin,' so called from its nocturnal habits and 

 weird cry, and once a very important article of food, was jEstrelata 

 caribbcra, or a very closely related form. 



"On Jamaica there was the same complex, (i) Piiffiiins Iherminieri 

 and (2) ^strelata caribbcra. 



■'The ' Pimlico ' of Bermuda (still so called) was Piiffinus Iher- 

 minieri (given by Hurdis and Reid as P. obscurns), or the first ele- 

 ment in the complex of Guadeloupe and Jamaica ; and I can see no 

 reason to suppose that your small skeletons are anything else. 



" From the very close similarity of the habits of the Cahow and 

 those of the Diablotin as recorded by the naturalists of Guadeloupe it 

 seems almost certain that the former could have been nothing else 



