2(2 JOURNAL OF THE TRINIDAD 



account cf so careful an observer is not to be questioned, and it 

 is (juite probable that the notes of the Jamaican bird differ 

 markedly from those of the birds which inhabit Trinidad. 



It seems little short of murder to kill one of these birds. 

 Certainly to shoot a calling bird was out of the question. Our 

 single specimen was shot as he sailed by one evening near the 

 stub where our first observations were made. He was wing- 

 tipped and before sacrificing him to the cause of science we 

 secured the photograph from which the illustration (PI. Ill) 

 accompanying this article was drawn. — 2'he Auk xii, No. 3, 

 July, 1895. 



NOTES ON TRINIDAD BIRDS, WITH A DESCRIPTION 

 OF A NEW SPECIES OF SYNALLAXIS. 



By Frank M. Ciiapman. 



A SECOND visit to Trinidad during March and April, 1894, 

 while made largely for the purpose of collecting mammals, 

 resulted in the acquisition of notes on birds which supplement 

 those published in the preceding volume of this Bulletin. 1 On 

 this occasion I was accompanied by Mr. William Brewster, and 

 after a brief visit to my former headquarters near Princestown, 

 we became the guests of Mr. Albert B. Carr, on his cacao estate 

 at Caparo, in the west-central part of the island, seven miles 

 east of Chaguanas. The country here is not unlike that about 

 the rest-house where previous collections were made, the primeval 

 forest being broken only by cacao estates. These, however, are 

 younger and smaller, the region having been settled within com- 

 paratively recent years. Probably for this reason certain birds, 

 which are common in the clearings and cacao groves about the 

 rest-house, are as yet comparatively rare or wanting on Mr. 

 Carr's estate ; for example : Vireo chivi agilis, Eamphocelus 

 jacapa magnirostris, Elainea pagana, Pitangus sulphuratus, and 

 Tyrannus melancholicus satrapa. 



The month of April was passed in the mountains which 

 form the northern coast of the island. On their northern or 

 seaward side the bases of these mountains are indented by but 

 few bays ; on their southern side, however, they are penetrated 

 by numerous valleys. Our home was near the head of one of 

 the most beautiful of these — the Caura Valley — about seven 

 miles from its opening on the plains. Here we were the guests 

 of Mr. J. E. Lickfold. 



1 ' On the Birds of the Island of Trinidad,' Bull, Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., VI, 1894, .pp 1-86. 



