THE BIEDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN" REPUBLIC 357 



Lawrencia nanus, Cory, Cat. West Indian Birds, 1892, p. 109 (Dominican 

 Republic).— Vekbill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 61, 1909, p. 361 

 (.Miranda, specimen). 



Laivrencia nana, Ridgway, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 50, pt. 4, 1907, p. 893 (descrip- 

 tion, allocation to oscines). — Peters, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 61, 1917, pp. 

 416-417 (Sosiia, specimen). — Bond, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 80, 

 192S, p. 511 (Gonave Island; northern Haiti).— Danfoeth, Auk. 1929, p. 370 

 (Gonave Island).- — Lonnberg, Fauna och Flora, 1929, p. 106 (Gonave). 



Resident, locally distributed in both republics; found on Gonave 

 Island. 



Though the present species was described as long ago as 1875 there 

 is still little known regarding it. The type secured in the Dominican 

 Eepublic by W. M. Gabb and preserved in the United States Nation- 

 al Museum, bears neither date nor locality as these were matters 

 considered at that day of no great importance. Verrill in 1909 wrote 

 of this bird " extremely rare, found at Miranda only " but seems not 

 to have collected any so that his record is open to doubt. The second 

 specimen so far as record goes was not obtained until 1916 when J. L. 

 Peters secured one at Sosiia, Dominican Republic, on April 8. He 

 writes that the bird had " just flown across a little open stretch and 

 alighted in a small tree through which it was searching in a most 

 vireo-like manner when I shot it." W. L. Abbott found the species 

 common on Gonave Island, Haiti, and there collected nine skins, four 

 of them February 20, 21 and 24, 1918, marked Gonave Island and five 

 March 6, 7 and 10 from Anse a Galets. He secured another at Port 

 Rincon, on the Samana Peninsula, Dominican Republic, August 16, 

 1919, and one at Mao, in the Yaqui Valley, February 24, 1921. He 

 writes that the birds were common on Gonave, being found in dense 

 brush near the foot of the hills, usually in pairs, and remarkably 

 tame. Under date of September 2, 1919 he reports others seen near 

 Sosiia, Dominican Republic, but did not secure them. Hartert (in 

 a letter) says that there is a male in the Tring Museum taken by 

 Kaempfer at Tiibano, Province of Azua, Dominican Republic, at 300 

 meters altitude on July 24, 1923. Danforth in 1927 found it fairly 

 common on Gonave where F. P. Mathews collected a male near Anse 

 a Galets July 20, which " was perched on top of a bush, calling with 

 a fairly loud, unmusical trill." James Bond in 1928 collected speci- 

 mens in Haiti which are in the Academy of Natural Sciences in 

 Philadelphia, a female at Magasin Caries, February 25, a breeding 

 male and another with sex not indicated at Port-de-Paix March 12 

 and 13, and others from Gonave February 5 and 8. He writes that 

 " Lawrencia in habits and appearance resembles the white-eyed 

 vireos delighting as it does to creep about in low scrub, occasionally 

 hopping about on the ground in search of food. Only once did I 

 observe this bird fly at insects in the manner of a flycatcher, the snap 



