362 PHELPS, Birds observed in Venezuela. ak 
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), 
oS . 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. 
Cyclorhis flavipectus. Lanio lawrenceii. 
Chlorospingus leotaudi. Sporophila lineola trinitatis. 
Platyrhynchus mystaceus insularis. Rhamphocenus melanurus trinitatis. 
Myrmeciza longipes albiventris. Amazilia erythronota. 
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 vermivorus olivascens. 
Myrmeciza longipes albiventris. Rhamphocenus melanurus trinitatis. 
Amazilia erythronota. 
1On the Birds of the Island of Trinidad. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1894, 
VI, pp. 1-86. 
