THE BIKDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC \j 



In the year 1618 Charles de Rochefort published a brief but inter- 

 esting account of the hunting of the flamingo as noted during his 

 travels. 



At the close of the year 1700 Father Labat, a French priest who 

 traveled extensively in the West Indies, came to Monte Cristi and 

 visited in turn Tortue Island, Cap-Ha'itien, Port-de-Paix, Mole St. 

 Nicolas, Petite Riviere, Estere, Leogane, lie a Vache, Les Cayes, 

 Fonds-des-Negres, Maniel, and Catalina and Saona Islands, depart- 

 ing from the island in April, 1701. His accounts of birds are casual, 

 including mention of pigeons, paroquets, thrushes and other birds 

 on Tortue, and pigeons at a few other points. 



Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his six-volume work entitled Ornith- 

 ologie, published in 1760, includes recognizable descriptions of 

 thirty-three kinds of birds from Hispaniola, in the collection of M. 

 de Reaumur from species received from a M. Chervain. In some 

 cases male and female of one kind are considered distinct forms, and 

 there are four not included in the number above whose identity is 

 uncertain, as well as three others improperly attributed to Hispan- 

 iola. The two types of Phaenicophilus erroneously are said to have 

 been collected in Cayenne by Artur. Of the collector Chervain noth- 

 ing has been learned aside from this mention in Brisson. Apparently 

 he was an industrious naturalist who worked prior to 1760, presum- 

 ably in the French colony of Haiti. M. de Reaumur may be the per- 

 son mentioned in the Journal de Saint -Domingue (December, 1765, 

 p. 65, and February, 1766, pp. 236-237) as author of a work on 

 entomology, and proponent of the introduction of the cochineal insect 

 to be reared on the abundant cacti of the island. The work of Cher- 

 vain has been important as the accepted scientific names of a number 

 of birds are based on the descriptions taken by Brisson from his 

 specimens. 



In the Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux of Georges Louis Leclerc 

 Buffon, published in nine volumes with the assistance of Mont- 

 beillard from 1770 to 1783, there are included many references to 

 Hispaniolan birds, taken mainly from published accounts, but 

 notable for their inclusion of many excellent first hand observations 

 obtained from reports of a correspondent named Deshayes. Accord- 

 ing to Moreau de Saint-Mery 4 M. Lefebure Deshayes, born in Saint- 

 Malo, France in 1732, resided in the canton of Plymouth, parish of 

 Jeremie, on an estate called Tivoly, about a quarter of a mile (220 

 toises) from the sea. Deshayes while a student of general natural 

 history preferred birds to all other subjects, and painted them with 

 such care and beauty of execution that his work received high praise 

 from Buffon. He was a member of the society called Cercle des 



4 Descrip. Part. Frang. Isle Saint-Domingue, vol. 2, 1798, pp. 814-815. 



