4.2 Chapman on the Winter Distribution of the Bobolink. [January 



Tamaica, distant now only eighty miles, nearer indeed than are 

 the Caymans from this island. 



The Jamaican records ai"e, in comparison to many of those 

 already cited, detailed and exceedingly satisfactory ; Gosse* 

 reports the arrival in October of vast numbers of Bobolinks which 

 remain until early November. They feed on the seeds of the 

 ' guinea grass,' are called ' Butter-birds,' and their flesh is 

 highly esteemed. March's | notes coincide with those of Gosse, 

 but he says the birds remain only for a few days. There is a 

 specimen in the American Museum taken by this collector label- 

 led "Spanish Town, ^ Sep. 25, 1865." A further Jamaican 

 record of a female taken in October, is given by Sclater.J 



After leaving Jamaica the route, considered as a regular high- 

 way of migration, is perhaps the most interesting and remarkable 

 of any chosen by our migratory land birds, for at no other time 

 during their entire journey from north to south, or vice versa* 

 are they necessarily so far from land, unless driven from their 

 course by storms or adverse winds. The South American coast 

 is now distant four hundred miles, the way unmarked by islet, 

 shoal, or reef. This is to the south ; to the southwest, leading to 

 the Costa Rican coast, are two or three small reefs or islands 

 which may tempt some of our birds to follow this course while 

 others take the more direct route to South America. Nor can 

 we doubt their ability' to perform without resting this more ex- 

 tended flight, for Darwin§ found a Bobolink in the Galapagoes, 

 distant nearly six hundred miles from the neaiest mainland. 

 Further, the records from northern South America apparently 

 indicate that some birds appear directly upon the coast instead of 

 entering this country by way of Panama or Trinidad. Com- 

 mencing at the westward these records are as follows : In the 

 British Museum Catalogue || specimens are cited from Chepo and 

 Paraiso on Panama; Sclater*f[ mentions a specimen from Sta. 

 Martha, and referring again to the British Museum Catalogue, we 

 find specimens mentioned from Caracas and Cayenne. Salvin** 



* Birds of Jamaica, 1847, p. 229. 



f Proc. Phil. Acad. Sc, 1863, p. 299. 



% P. Z. S., 1861, p. 74. 



$ Voyage of the Beagle, 1841, Vol. Ill, p. 106. 



|| Cat. Brit. Mus., XI, p. 332. 



H Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, p. 134. 



** Ibis, 1885, p. 218. 



