•262 Phelps, Birds observed in Venezuela. [oct' 



my disposal, through the kindness of Dr. J. A. Allen, Curator of 

 birds in the American Museum of Natural History, and I was 

 therefore enabled to make direct comparisons of the specimens 

 from the island with mine from the mainland. As a result I 

 have been able to greatly reduce the number of forms hitherto 

 supposed to be confined to Trinidad, so bringing the island and 

 mainland into still closer faunal connection. 



Mr. Chapman,^ after pointing out the close geographical, geolog- 

 ical and faunal relation of the island to South America, says (p. 7), 

 " .... it is therefore of special interest to note the effects of 

 this recent insulation on the birds of the island. Unfortunately 

 we have not as yet sufficient exact data from the adjoining main 

 to make a satisfactory comparison, but as before stated, the rela. 

 tionships of the birds of the island to those of the continent are 

 remarkably close. As far as we at present know the following 

 species and subspecies of birds are peculiar to Trinidad or to 

 Trinidad and Tobago : 



Merula xanthosceles. Basileuterus vermivorus olivascens. 



Cvclorhis flavipectus. Lanio lawrenceii. 



Chlorospingus leotaudi. Sporophila lineola trinitatis. 



Plat3'rhvnchus mjstaceus insularis. Rhamphoc?enus melanurus trinitatis. 



Myrmeciza longipes albiventris. Amazilia ei'vthronota. 



Momotus swainsoni. Pipile pipile. 



" Most of these birds are simply insular representatives of 

 mainland species to which they are closely allied." 



Five of these twelve forms I found to correspond with my 

 examples from the mainland and so they must be eliminated from 

 the list of peculiar Trinidad species. These are : 



Cyclorhis flavipectus. Basileuterus vennivorus olivascens. 



Myrmeciza longipes albiventris. RhamphocKnus melanurus trinitatis. 



Amazilia erj'thronota. 



' On the Birds of the Island of Trinidad. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1S94, 

 VI, pp. 1-86. 



