1^2 G. M. Allen, Summer Birds in the Bahamas. [a"t 



note which I at first mistook for the chirp of a grasshopper. On one or 

 two occasions we heard the song of this Mockingbird, but most of them 

 seemed to have stopped singing. We saw birds on Stranger Cay, Mo- 

 raine Cay, and Great Sale Cay. 



62. Mimus polyglottos (Linn.). Mockingbird. — As noted by Bon- 

 hote, 1 the White-winged Mockingbird of the northern Bahamas appears 

 to be the same as the bird of the neighboring mainland. It seems to 

 have come in within a recent period and keeps close to the villages and 

 settlements. We found it commonly about the edges of clearings and 

 cultivated ground at Elbow Cay, and discovered nests with fresh eggs at 

 that place on July 4 and 5. Bonhote records the bird also from Great 

 Abaco, as well as nests and eggs in March from Little Abaco. At the 

 extensive sisal plantations on the latter island we saw numbers of the 

 birds, particularly near the houses, and were told by Mr. Meeres, of the 

 Sisal Fiber Company, that they had noticeably increased during the past 

 few years. Many of the Mockingbirds were still in song, and I several 

 times heard them at various hours of the night during the full moon of 

 early July. 



63. Polioptila caerulea caesiogaster Ridgway. Bahama Gnatcatcher; 

 "Catbird." — We met with this bird only twice among the northern 

 islands, once on Elbow Cay, July 4, and again, July 17, a few were found 

 at Great Bahama among the bushy growth of the pine woods. 



64. Mimocichla plumbea (Linn.). Plumbeous Mockingbird ; "Blue 

 Thrasher." — Only two specimens of this bird were seen throughout 

 our trip, one at Cedar Harbor, Little Abaco, on July 11, and a second 

 near Sweeting's Village, Great Abaco, July 22. They were not shy but 

 their manner of life among the thickets and their silence at this season 

 of the year rendered them difficult to observe. 



By way of summary it is interesting to group together the 

 species of birds that inhabit the different sorts of country. Thus 

 the following 20 species and subspecies occur chiefly if not exclu- 

 sively on the larger " main " islands, as New Providence, the 

 Abacos, and Great Bahama : 



Pcecilonetta bahamensis. 



Pluvnicopterus ruber. 



Coliitus bahamensis (New Providence). 



Cathartes aura (except New Providence). 



Amazona bahamensis (Great Abaco). 



Crotophaga atii. 



Dryobates villosus maynardi and D. v. piger. 



Centurus blakei. 



My in rchus leucaysiensis. 



1 Bonhote: Ibis, Ser. 8, Vol. HI, 190J, p. 276. 



