Birds of the Cayman Islands. 141 



of the hosts of American migrants which visit the islands 

 for the winter months only. 



So far as I have been able to ascertain, nothing was known 

 of the birds of the Cayman Islands prior to the year 1886 — 

 at any rate, as far as professed ornithologists are concerned. 

 In the summer of that year Mr. W. B. Richardson visited the 

 islands on behalf of Mr. C. B. Cory, the well-known American 

 authority on West-Indian birds. As the result of this 

 expedition Mr. Cory published a description of no less than 

 thirteen new species of birds which had been found on 

 the Grand Cayman alone (' Auk/ iii. pp. 497-502, 1886). 

 Following this he described a new Vireo from the same 

 island in 1887 ('Auk/ iv. p. 7, 1887), and published a list 

 of the birds collected by Mr. C. J. Maynard on the islands 

 of Little Cayman and Cayman Brae in 1889 (' Auk/ vi. p. 30, 

 1889). In May 1887, Mr. Charles H. Townsend paid a 

 short visit to Grand Cayman, and Mr. Robert Ridgway 

 described, among other birds contained in his small collec- 

 tion, a new species of Dendrceca (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. vol. x. 

 1887). 



From this date until the year 1896, when Mr. Taylor, of 

 Jamaica, went there on behalf of the Tring Museum, no 

 other collector seems to have visited the islands. Mr. Taylor 

 made a magnificent collection of birds which are now in 

 Mr. Walter Rothschild^s Museum, and among them were 

 examples of a new species of Finch from Grand Cayman which 

 Dr. Hartert described as Melopyrrha taylori (Nov. Zool. 

 vol. iii. p. 257, 1896). 



In January 1904, while on board the yacht ' Emerald ' 

 chartered by Sir Frederic Johnstone, I had the opportunity, 

 in company with the late Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, of seeing 

 something of the bird-life on all the three Caymans. 



On two other occasions I have visited the Grand Cayman 

 and Little Cayman with Sir Frederic, and I have written 

 a few remarks on some birds which I collected there {' The 

 Ibis,' 1909, pp. 339-347). 



In March 1904, Lord Crawford visited the Caymans in 



