BIRDS OF THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 



BY 

 JOSEPH H. RILEY, 



Aid, Division of Birds, U. S. National Museum. 



INTRODUCTION. 



During the months of June and July, 1903, the writer was granted leave 

 of absence from the U. S. National Museum in order to join the Expedition 

 sent out to the Bahama Islands by the Geographical Society of Baltimore. 

 While a member of this Expedition, he was in charge of the Division of Land 

 Zoology and was ably assisted in his collecting by Mr. Samuel H. Derickson, 

 a student at the Johns Hopkins University. On the return of the party, 

 Messrs. Leonhard Stejneger and Gerrit S. Miller worked up the batrachians, 

 reptiles and mammals taken on the Expedition and have published on them 

 elsewhere in this volume, and Dr. George B. Shattuck, the Director of the 

 Expedition, has requested me to discuss the Bahama birds. 



Althouglr much still remains to be learned regarding the birds of the 

 Bahamas, nevertheless they have received more study than any other group of 

 land animals, and the present paper is written to review our present knowledge 

 in regard to the Ornithology of the Bahamas rather than in the hope of adding 

 much new material to that already in our possession. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 

 The first naturalist to visit the Bahama Islands for the purpose of seri- 

 ously studying the natural history was Mark Catesby, who published the 

 results of his travels in America in two large folio volumes entitled The Nat- 

 ural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, 1731-1748. They 

 contained 220 colored plates with an appendix of 30 plates and a map, the 

 text printed in both English and French in parellel columns. Catesby tells us 

 that he visited New Providence, Eleuthera, Andros, Abaco, and the neighbor- 

 ing islands. His plates and descriptions served Linnaeus and others as the 

 basis for many of their species. Only a few Bahama birds were indicated. 



