THE BIRDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 343 



occasionally quivering the tips of the wings slightly. When the birds 

 were at rest the tail hung straight down, at other times it was held at 

 an angle. The light yellow tarsi were always prominent and were 

 even noticed when birds flew over head. The natives knew the song 

 of the jilguero but very few professed to have seen it so that the 

 specimens collected attracted much interest. 



In Haiti the musicien has been known to historians for many years. 

 At the close of the eighteenth century Moreau de Saint-Mery wrote 

 that Mont Organise in the northeastern mountains was said to have 

 been named because it was the favorite resort of this beautiful 

 songster. He reported it also at Dondon, Nouvelle Touraine, and 

 on the slopes of La Selle above Jacmel. Montbeillard in 1778 quotes 

 records from Deshayes who found it in the high mountains of the 

 south of Haiti. Hearne in 1834 wrote to the Zoological Society of 

 London that he hoped to secure a specimen alive for the zoological 

 gardens but apparently was not successful. The first specimen of 

 which there is actual record seems to be the type collected by Cory 

 near Fort Jacques, above Petionville on March 3, 1881. Cory speaks 

 of the solitaire as apparently rare and secured no others. It was 

 reported to Abbott during his work in the southwestern peninsula 

 but at that season was not singing so that he did not succeed in 

 finding it. In 1927 Wetmore found it fairly common in the rain- 

 forests on the slopes of La Selle recording its song on April 12, 13, 

 and 16. An adult male taken April 12 had the bill black ; iris bright 

 reddish brown; tarsus and toes bright yellow; and claws dusky. 

 The birds were found principally in the steep-sided ravines below 

 the summit of the long ridge that forms the top of this range. In 

 early morning their clear, flutelike notes came with indescribable 

 purity to the listener resting on the brink of the great precipice 

 that forms the face of Morne La Visite, a marvellously beautiful 

 song and one never to be forgotten. One was heard on the summit 

 of Morne St. Vincent near Furcy on April 17. Bond in 1928 found 

 them on La Hotte, and La Selle, in the Montaignes Noires, and in 

 the Massif du Nord. 



The excellent series of fourteen skins available enables the clearing 

 away of confusion that has existed regarding the identity of the 

 solitaires of Hispaniola. Cory in 1881 described his single specimen 

 as Myiadestes montanus. 21 He gave no locality in the original de- 

 scription but elsewhere writes that it was taken " in the neighbor- 

 hood of Fort Jacques." The skin, Field Mus. No. 26,988, a female, 

 is labeled " Le Coup, Hayti," this being equivalent to the present day 

 Petionville. When Cherrie secured others in 1895 in the Dominican 

 Republic he found that they differed somewhat from Cory's type 



27 Bull. Nuttall Ornith. Club, 1881, p. 151. 



