on the Birds of San Domingo. 319 



them. ] have therefore avoided needless description and the 

 subject of nomenclature, confining myself almost entirely 

 to recounting my observations of the habits and mode of 

 life of the different species, a subject upon which practically 

 nothing seems to have been written. I have added oc- 

 casional notes upon nidification, measurement, contents of 

 stomach, and the state of testes or ovaries. 



I had previously studied to some extent the birds of South 

 America, haviug spent some time in the Argentine; but I 

 knew nothing of North-American birds, and I had only 

 Mr. Cory^s book on the birds of Hayti and San Domingo to 

 help me in identification. 



—1. MiMOCicHLA ARDESiACA. Locally " Flautcro." 

 (Cory, op.' cit. p. 18.) 



This species has a loud fiute-like song, hence its local 

 name. I found it pretty common at La Vega, but it was 

 shy, and usually met with in the thicker parts of the forest. 

 In an adult male, shot at Sanchez on Feb. 25, I found the 

 testes were the size of peas. The stomach was full of black 

 pimento-seeds and their pulp. In another specimen, an adult 

 female, shot April 14, I found the stomach contained a 

 lizard and several lizard's eggs. On May 17 I shot a male 

 nestling. 



There was no proper gizzard in these birds. The mucous 

 membrane of the stomach was very thick, but soft and 

 unusually separable from the thin muscular wall of the 

 organ — an arrangement which suggested that in order to 

 digest its food the bird required a more liberal supply of 

 blood to the stomach than most other birds of its class : in 

 fact, it was a stomach not unlike that of the carnivorous birds. 



^2. MiMus DOMiNicus. Locally ^^ Ruiseilor.''' 



(Cory, op. cit. p. 21.) 



This is the Mocking-bird of San Domingo, and a really 

 magnificent songster. It is a species peculiar to the island, 

 and I found it common both at Sanchez and La Vega. 

 Seated on the top spike of a royal palm, it pours out its 

 glorious song for twenty minutes or half an hour at a time 



