18/1.] MR. P. L. SCLATER ON THE BIRDS OF SANTA LUCIA. 263 



1. On the Birds of the Island of Santa Lucia, West Indies. 

 By P. L. Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to 

 the Society. 



[Received March 14, 1871.] 

 (Plate XXI.) 



Our newly elected Corresponding Member Mr. G. W. Des Vceux, 

 Administrator of the Government of Santa Lucia, has most kindly 

 sent to me a collection of birds formed in that island by the Rev. 

 J. E. Semper, an English clergyman resident there. Tins collection 

 is one of great interest, as very little is known of the avifauna of 

 Santa Lucia, and every branch of the zoology of the Antilles is 

 worthy of special investigation. Before speaking of it I may be 

 permitted to say a few words on the present state of our knowledge 

 of the birds of the Antilles generally. 



The West-Indian Islands seem to me to constitute, as I have on 

 former occasions explained, a distinct subdivision of the Neotropical 

 region, which may be called the Subregio antillensis* . This sub- 

 region is divisible into two portions, which correspond to the two 

 usually recognized divisions of the islands into the Greater and Lesser 

 Antilles. The former of these is characterized by the presence of 

 the remarkable Mammal-forms Solenodon, Capromys, and Plagio- 

 dontia, and by several peculiar types of ornithic life, such as Spin- 

 dalis, Sporadinus, Todus, and Saurothera, which run on as far as 

 Porto Rico, but do not cross into the Lesser Antilles. The latter, 

 if we put the Chiroptera aside, present but few traces of Mammal- 

 life, except one or two species of Agouti (Dasyprocta) and Mouse 

 (Hespet-omys), but are tenanted by certain characteristic forms of 

 birds, such as Rhamphocinclus, Cinclocerthia, Orthorhynchus, and 

 Eulampis, which are not known in the Greater Antilles. 



The ornithology of the Greater Antilles is now tolerably well 

 known to us, although specimens from most of the islands are rare 

 in collections and difficult to obtain. The Lesser Antilles, on the 

 other hand, are still very imperfectly investigated as regards their 

 birds, many of them being, so far as I know, still unvisited by any 

 naturalist or collector. There can be no doubt, however, that every 

 one of them is well worthy of being worked at, and that the results 

 to be obtained from a thorough examination of the whole group 

 would be of great importance towards a more complete knowledge of 

 the laws of distribution. To show how slight our acquaintance is 

 with this subject and how much remains to be done, I will mention 

 the principal islands or island-groups in order, and specify what 

 kind of knowledge we have of their ornithology. 



* Prof. Baird, iu his excellent articles on the distribution and migrations of 

 North-American birds (American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xli.), proposes 

 to make the West Indies a "Region" of itself. I do not think that there are 

 sufficient reasons for adopting this course, though there is in its fauna a certain 

 element of autoohthonism which does not harmonize very well with either North 

 or South America. 



