1877.] 243 [Moore. 



Rhy. solitarius, T. Bonapartii and himantopus, G. melancJiolica and 

 G. Jlavipes, and Sterna frenata; and as his list includes some that 

 are resident here, for instance : Carthartes aura, Geothlypis trichas, 

 Vireo (barbatulus) altiloquus, Columba leucocephala, Cham&pelia pas- 

 serina and Pandion carolinensis, I thought I would insert them. 



Observations on some Birds seen near Nassau, N. Provi- 

 dence, in the Bahama Islands. By N. B. Moore. 



Dr. E. Coues tells us that the Vireos are strictly insectivorous birds. 

 This is an error, certainly, in regard to two species seen here — 

 V. crassirostris (Bryant) and V. flavifrons. 1 How many other 

 species of Vireos are as fond of a diet of this sort, I cannot say — 

 perhaps many. 



The number of winter visitors from N. America to the Baha- 

 mas is as large, when fully observed, as the number found in Cuba, 

 from the same region. For, adding my list of thirty to the pre- 

 vious list — less one (Cliordeiles popetue, which I think is not 

 found here), we have a total of 29 -|- 25 — 54 species, observed in 

 the Bahamas, and a large majority of them on the island of New 

 Providence. 



It may be that Tyrannus dominicensis should be discarded from the 

 list. I have not seen it here — to identify it. 



As to Dr. Bryant's Chordeiles popetue, I ought, perhaps, not to 

 assert my opinion against his, for it is scarcely possible that he, a 

 resident of Boston, can be ignorant of the New England " Night- 

 hawk's" coloration, as also of its utterance. But I do think that, as 

 he left here on the 13th of May, and this "Pira-mi-dick," as it is called 

 here, only "began to arrive on the 1st of May, though they became 

 numerous by the 10th," he did not hear their notes, which are pecu- 

 liar — entirely unlike those of C. popetue. It utters the word " Pira- 

 mi-dick," both when mounting aloft, and also at the lowest part 

 of the curve, when making its plunge towards the earth, in the 

 same manner as does C. popetue. I cannot think that any person 

 who has heard the voices of these birds, could for a moment suppose 

 them to be the same species. Mr. Gosse mistook the Jamaica bird 



*Mr. Moore's extended observations, showing that both species named feed 

 greedily on the fruit of the Gumbo-limbo tree, are omitted for want of space. All 

 of the family are well known to be largely fruit-eaters. (See North American 

 Birds, Vol. I, pp. 362, 365, 372, 381, etc.) 



