ZOOLOGICAL EXPLORATION IN HISPANIOLA 



By ALEXANDER WETMORE, 



Assistant Secretary, SinitIiso)iiaji Institittion 



The island that Cokiniluis named Hispaniola, divided poUtically 

 hetween the Dominican Repul)Hc and the Repul)Hc of Haiti. otTers, in 

 its zoological features, one of the most interesting areas for study in 

 the West Indies. To supplement the collections previously made for 

 the National Museum in Hispaniola l)y Dr. W. L. Ahbott, and to 

 obtain information on faunal areas and distribution for use in re- 

 jiorts now in preparation on the Aljbott collections, I conducted zoo- 

 logical explorations on the island, under the Swales Fund, from 

 March 27 to June 3, 1927. 



r^ollowing my arrival in Port au Prince, and a few days spent in 

 that vicinity, work was begun at Fonds-des-Negres in the southern 

 peninsula where, in comj^any with Dr. C. H. Arndt, a considerable 

 area was covered, from Acjuin on the south coast to the great fresh 

 water lake known as the Etang de Miragoane on the north. Much of 

 Haiti is dry and arid, but the vegetation in the better watered region 

 at Fonds-des-Negres a]ipears more as is antici]:)ated in visits to 

 subtropical regions. Guinea hens running wild in abundance, native 

 coots with smooth, glistening white plates on the forehead, gray or 

 green lizards 12 inches in length clinging motionless on the tree 

 trunks, and for some unknown reason held in the deepest fear by the 

 Haitian laborers, were a very few of the many attractive features of 

 this locality. It was here that I had opportunity to investigate the 

 communal nests of the palm chat, a bird peculiar to the island. The 

 palm chats are as large as bluebirds, and are of gregarious habit, 

 being found in little bands that construct at the top of some royal 

 palm a permanent home of sticks, a structure at times six or seven 

 feet in diameter. 



On returning from the southern peninsula, we set out one morning 

 from Petionville, a village in the hills back of the capital city, for the 

 great mountain ridge of La Selle. Our road, at first broad and open, 

 wound steadily up the slopes of the hills bordering the Cul-de-Sac 

 plain toward Kenscoff and Furcy to altitudes where the air was cool 

 and pleasant, although we looked far down into the shimmering heat 



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