THE ORIGIN OF. WEST INDIA BIRD-LIFE 



B}!- Fran*k M. Chapman, 

 American Museum of Natural History, New York 



A study of the origin of the life of any given area involves so 

 extensive a knowledge of the factors governing the distribution 

 of life that the ideal theory of the derivation of the fauna of a 

 region should be based on the detailed reports of a corps of 

 specialists, each one of whom should state without bias the facts 

 in the case as they have been determined in his particular sub- 

 ject. Thus, before attempting to account for the origin of life 

 in the West India islands, we should receive such reports from 

 the geologist, hydrographer, climatologist, palaeontologist, zool- 

 ogist, and botanist, and no theory can be satisfactory which does 

 not consider the data presented by these specialists. 



Acting on this principle, I offer the following s}mopsis of 

 studies of West India bird-life made during the past ten years, 

 tbe detailed results of which will be found in earlier papers :* 



My remarks may be prefaced by the statement that, so far 

 as its distribution is concerned, our knowledge of the resident 

 bird-life of the West Indies is essentially complete. Haiti and 

 San Domingo may hold some ornithological secrets, but our re- 

 corded information is not likely to receive any material acces- 

 sions — a condition of affairs for which we have largely to thank 

 Mr C. B. Cory, who has sent collectors to every West India island 

 and published numerous reports on the results of their work.t 



Of the 580 or more birds which have now been recorded from 

 the West Indies, no fewer than some 305 are endemic. The re- 

 maining 275 are species of general continental or tropical distri- 

 bution, or those of the surrounding mainland, about 170 being 

 migrants from eastern North America, which occur in the West 

 Indies as winter residents or as transient visitants. Of the 305 

 endemic species, 293 are land birds, 90 per cent of the resident 

 land birds being therefore endemic — truly a surprising degree of 

 specialization when we consider how near several of the islands 



♦American Naturalist, 1891, pp. 528-539; Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., iv, 1892, pp. 279- 

 330 ; vi, 1894, pp. 8, 9 ; ix, 1897, pp. 29, 30. 



fSee his " Birds of the West Indies," in The Auk, iii, 1886, pp. 1-59 et seq. ; and " Cata- 

 logue of West Indian Birds," published by the Author, Boston, 1892. 



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