SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I93I 51 



Frank Warmoth, John L. Segall, and George Hamor of the Bara- 

 hona Company, devoted to the making of sugar, received us most 

 hospitably, and through their kind assistance we engaged a little sail- 

 boat, the Rosita, with a crew of three men, and set out one evening for 

 the island of Beata off the extreme southern tip of the Barahona 

 Peninsula. The following afternoon we landed in the little bay of 

 Ocrik on the north shore of Beata where through the kindness of 

 Don Eduardo Echevaria we were given quarters in a little house, a 

 most welcome attention, as the sun's heat was so strong that a tent 

 would have been almost unbearable. 



Beata Island is low and slightly undulating, composed of a mass 

 of limestone much eaten by erosion so that the surface is rough and 

 broken. Thorny bushes, trees, and vines growing from the scanty 

 soil accumulated in crevices in the rock form a jungle so dense that it 

 may be penetrated only along trails cut laboriously into the interior. 

 The coast was bare and open with stretches of sandy beach alternating 

 with low, rocky headlands. 



Within 15 minutes after leaving camp on our first morning afield 

 we obtained specimens of a wood warbler that was recognized in- 

 stantly as new to science. Its near relatives inhabit the high rain 

 forests of the mountains so that it was a surprise to find a repre- 

 sentative in the dry scrubs of Beata. Snakes were common and lizards 

 abounded, and several collected proved to be new to science, as did 

 several forms of land shells. We captured a number of brilliantly 

 colored, ground-living lizards alive, and brought them home with con- 

 siderable difficulty for the National Zoological Park. 



Our work afield was pursued principally in early morning as by 

 11 o'clock the blazing sun beating down on the island made any 

 physical exertion arduous. Even in the earlier part of the day the 

 heat was at times most oppressive. Our afternoons were occupied at 

 camp with notes and specimens. Pelicans, terns, and gulls fished 

 along the beach just beyond our front door, while from the opposite 

 doorway we looked out over a lagoon where often three or four pink 

 flamingoes stalked solemnly about, occasionally within 200 yards. 

 One day we went out in the boat to a series of offshore rocks where 

 we saw boobies, frigate-birds and tropic-birds, and found breeding 

 colonies of bridled and noddy terns. Roseate terns and least terns 

 nested near our camp. A kingfisher and a few barn swallows from 

 North America passing in migration as late as the middle of May were 

 reminders that the time for our own journey northward was near, and 

 we finally set out one evening in the Rosita on our return to Barahona. 

 With contrary winds a small sailboat is not to be recommended for 



