THE ORIGIN OF WEST INDIA BIRD-LIFE 245 



connection between these islands and the continent, and with- 

 out pausing to inquire into minor questions, let us at once pro- 

 ceed to Grenada, the last island of the group, in order to learn 

 to what extent its avifauna has been influenced by its proximity 

 to the mainland, and especially to the continental island of 

 Trinidad. 



Some 195 resident South American land birds are known from 

 Trinidad. Of this number no fewer than sixt} r -five have been 

 found in Tobago, which was evidently at one time connected 

 with Trinidad, but only sixteen have been recorded from Gre- 

 nada. In Trinidad these birds represent thirty families, in 

 Tobago twenty-five, and in Grenada but eleven, and these eleven 

 birds, with one or two exceptions, are members of families hav- 

 ing w-ide distribution and extended powers of flight. So far as 

 their avifauna is concerned, therefore, there has apparently been 

 no connection between the Lesser Antilles and the mainland, 

 and we may regard these islands as zoological dependencies of 

 both South America and the Greater Antilles, from which, 

 through more or less fortuitous circumstances, their avifauna 

 has been derived. 



Turning now to the Greater Antilles, we may at once dispose 

 of the Bahamas as oceanic islands of more recent formation 

 than any of the larger islands or mainland adjacent to them, 

 from which they have evidently received their life. Only one 

 genus is peculiar, and with the exception of its single species, 

 the ancestry of the twenty-five forms peculiar to the Bahamas 

 can be traced with more or less certainty, Cuba furnishing the 

 greater number of parent forms. The Caymans, about 175 miles 

 south of Cuba and 200 miles west of Jamaica, present an appar- 

 ently similar case, most of the fifteen forms peculiar to them 

 being closely related to Cuban or Jamaican species. 



We have left now the four larger islands of the Greater Antilles, 

 from which 174 of the 303 peculiar West Indian birds have 

 been recorded. They are distributed as follows : 



Jamaica, 66, of which 42 are endemic; Cuba, 68, of which 45 

 are endemic; Haiti and San Domingo, 56, of which 34 are en- 

 demic; Porto Rico, 46, of which 25 are endemic. 



As I remarked in the paper on the " Origin of West Indian 

 Bird-life," previously referred to : " It will be observed that 

 although Jamaica is but little larger than Porto Rico, and is 

 more isolated from neighboring regions than any island of the 

 group, it is nearty as rich in endemic species, and has one 



