Notes on some Cuban Birds. 267 



XXXIII. — Notes on some Cuban Birds, with Descriptions of 

 three New Species. 



By John Gundlaoh, Ph. D., Corresponding Member. 

 Read June 2<dth, 1857. 



I. Cypselidae of Cuba. 



Mr. D'Orbigny, in his descriptions of the Birds of Cuba, pub- 

 lished in "La Sagra's Natural History of the Island," 1841, 

 only mentions one species of Swallow, H. purpurea, but ob- 

 serves that he did not doubt several more could be found, when 

 the interior should be explored. This has been accomplished. 

 Mr. Lembeye, in his work on the Birds of Cuba, 1850, Havana, 

 availing himself of my observations and discoveries, mentions 

 four Hirundidae, and adds to the family of Cypselidas (Swifts) 

 Cyp. Iradii Lerab. Mr. Philip Henry Gosse, in his " Birds of 

 Jamaica," published in 1817, describes three swallows and three 

 swifts. These are divided into three genera, Acanthylis, 

 Tachornis, and Cypselus. 



During my residence of 17 years on the western part of the 

 Island, I had only observed the species Cyp. Iradii, but in my 

 present travel of discovery, I have found not only in the moun- 

 tains between Cienfuegos and Trinidad on the southern coast, 

 but in the eastern parts in the Sierra Maestra, the Cyp. Collaris, 

 Pr. Max., and Cyp. niger {Hirundo niger), Gmel. 



I will now describe these, and add the observations I have 

 been able to make respecting them. 



1. Cypselus collaris, Pk. Max. 



Mr. Gosse describes it under the name of Acanthylis collaris ? 

 Ringed gowrie ; but as the characteristics of this genus consist 

 in the points at the end of the tail feathers, and the greater or 



