THE AUK : 



A Q^UARTERLY JOURNAL OF 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



VOL. XII. July, 1895. no. 3. 



NOTES ON BIRDS OBSERVED IN TRINIDAD. 



BY WILLIAM BREWSTER AND FRANK M. CHAPMAN. 

 Plate III. 



Our knowledge of tropical birds is so largely derived from the 

 journals of travellers and naturalists, whose arduous explorations 

 in the less accessible parts of the tropics have been attended by 

 hardship and exposure, that most of us are discouraged from 

 even attempting to visit the fascinating regions they describe. 

 The brilliantly colored Trogons, Toucans, Jacamars and Hum- 

 mingbirds which figure so conspicuously in cases of tropical 

 birds, thus seem to us to be more or less unreal inhabitants of 

 lands forever beyond the bounds of our experience. The truth 

 is, however, that we may be comfortably and safely established in 

 a tropical forest in less time than it frequently takes to reach the 

 nearest European port. 



The Island of Trinidad belongs politically to the British West 

 Indies, but faunally it is a small bit of the South American con- 

 tinent which has been detached in recent geological times. Its 

 bird-life therefore is very similar to that of the Venezuelan main- 

 land and is quite unlike the comparatively meagre, insular avi- 

 fauna of the true West Indian islands to the northward. A visit 

 to Trinidad is thus practically a visit to South America. But it 



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