552 DR. 0. FINSCH ON THE BIRDS OF TRINIDAD. [June 23, 
on a hoop tied with a string to one of their legs. When brought 
on board they were fed with boiled rice and table-raisins, and throve 
exceedingly on their new food. While we remained in the Tropics 
the birds were in good health, but when we got into colder latitudes 
began to fail. When we arrived in Sydney two were presented to 
the Zoological Collection in the Botanic Gardens, but died in 
about a week’s time. So far as I can remember, our own all died at 
last and were taken to London in skins when the ‘ Curacoa’ returned 
to Portsmouth. There has been a specimen of the same bird in the 
Sydney Museum for years; but no name nor locality was attached 
until this last month or so. 
8. On a Collection of Birds from the Island of Trinidad. 
By Dr. Orto Finscu, C.M.Z.S. 
Mr. Kohlmann, a schoolmaster of Vegesack, has kindly placed in 
my hands for determination a collection of birds from the Island of 
Trinidad, brought home by a captain of a vessel belonging to this 
small port on the Weser. 
Though birds of this well-explored island* are rather common in 
collections, the first account of its rich avifauna did not appear 
before 1864, when Mr. E. C. Taylor (Ibis, pp. 73-97) published 
his interesting article (Five Months in the West Indies. Part I. 
Trinidad and Venezuela), enumerating 141 species, chiefly belonging 
to the Island of Trinidad. Two years later we got a work specially 
devoted to the birds of this island from the pen of Dr. A. Léotaud f, 
a French ornithologist, whose praiseworthy zeal and intelligence 
manifested signs of still greater progress, but who, unfortunately, 
died scarcely one year later (vide Ibis, 1867, p. 256). From my 
acquaintance with this work, which was “publi¢é par souscription 
nationale,” I am enabled to say that it is one of the best of its sort 
ever published in a country where the sources of science are more than 
usually meagre, and where especially bibliographical material is by no 
means near at hand. Nobody, therefore, will feel inclined to criti- 
cise the author for being here and there mistaken in the correct 
appellation of the species, and still less since the descriptive portion 
of the work and the accurate measurements prove him to have been 
throughout an excellent practical observer. 
Dr. Sclater has already corrected some of the errors in his valuable 
remarks on Dr. Léotaud’s book (Ibis, 1867, pp. 104-108) ; and in 
the course of the following pages I shall be able to add some further 
corrections. The results of my endeavours will be, I believe, of 
* A brief sketch of its avifauna has been given already by Dr. Hartlaub; Uber 
den heutigen Zustand unserer Kenntniss von Westindiens Ornithologie (Isis, 
1847, p. 614). 
+ Oiseaux de Vile de la Trinidad (Antilles); par A. Léotaud, Docteur en 
Médecine de la Faculté de Paris, Membre Correspondant de Ja Société de Mé- 
decine de Gant. Port d’Espagne: Chronicle Publishing Office, 1866, 
