402 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Hyphantornis c. cucullatus, Beebe, Zool. Soc. Bull., vol. 30, 1927, p. 141 ; 

 Beneath Tropic Seas, 1928, pp. 215, 223 (Bizoton, Miragoane, Port-au-Prince). 



Textor cucullatus, Bond, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 80, 1928, 

 p. 510 (Miragoane, Port-au-Prince, Etang Saumatre, Trou Caiman, Ennery). 



Introduced into Haiti from West Africa ; resident locally. 



The first information of the presence of this weaver-finch in Haiti 

 came from photographs of a group of unknown nests taken in 1917 

 by Paul Bartsch. He recorded colonies at Trou Caiman April 4, and 

 20 kilometers north of Port-au-Prince April 27. 



In May, 1920 E. C. Leonard, botanizing near Fond Parisien, ob- 

 served a colony of nests of a form strange to him which he called 

 to the attention of W. L. Abbott who collected the first specimens on 

 May 5. Others were taken May 8 and 12, and on May 16 one was 

 secured at Manneville. In 1927 Wetmore made especial effort to 

 obtain information on the distribution of the weaver, a quest in which 

 he was greatly assisted by Dr. G. N. Wolcott, then entomologist for 

 the Service Technique, who had located several colonies. Appar- 

 ently the weaver-bird has its center of abundance in the Cul-de-Sac 

 plain, extending beyond this to the north beyond St. Marc, as there 

 is a skin in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia taken 

 near the mouth of the Artibonite River July 24, 1927, by J. T. Emlen, 

 Jr., and to Ennery where it is reported by Bond. On March 30, 

 near Mont Rouis Wetmore was shown a colony by Wolcott in two 

 trees immediately back of the beach, the nests being the lowest seen, 

 ranging from two and one half to seven meters from the ground. 

 (PI. 18.) They were not occupied at that time. In the Brigade 

 Hospital grounds in Port-au-Prince there was a colony of 40 nests 

 placed in the tops of two royal palms, a group that has been seen by 

 many naturalists who have passed through the city in recent years. 

 Along the north side of the southern peninsula the weaver has ex- 

 tended into the Leogane plain. Wolcott showed Wetmore one col- 

 ony of 60 nests in a eucalyptus tree standing in a yard at Montfleury, 

 and another group located in the tops of two Haitian oaks (Catalpa 

 longisshna) between Mariani and Gressier on March 29. Appar- 

 ently the birds range even farther to the westward since Wetmore 

 in April, 1927 secured bones of the weaver in barn owl pellets col- 

 lected in a cave a short distance west of L'Acul. The barn owl may 

 eat these birds rather regularly since weaver bones were also identified 

 from owl pellets secured in the cave at Diquini. It will be recalled 

 that Abbott recorded the weaver at Manneville and Fond Parisien. 

 There is further a specimen in the Philadelphia Academy of Natural 

 Sciences shot near Trou Caiman December 30, 1927, by James Bond, 

 who reports the species at Miragoane, Port-au-Prince, Etang Sau- 



