1894
April 5
(No 3)
Caura
Trinidad, B.W.I.
bright light in the sky which formed the background as
I looked upward it was almost impossible to distinguish
color and very unsafe to rely on size and shape alone.
Thus it would often take several minutes to identify any
particular bird and [delete] by the time [/delete] at the precise moment
when I had fully recognized him and decided to shoot
it often happened that he would dart away pursuing, or
pursued by, another. Indeed I sometimes stood quietly
beneath the tree for half-an-hour without firing a shot
and three full hours were consumed in killing eight birds.
  Of course I might have fired at random but I wanted
only certain species and did not care to waste life.
  (5 species identified)
  At this tree I fully identified the following species which
are named in the order of their relative abundance:
Agyrtria chionipectus, Lampornis violicanda, Amaxilia
erythronota (not seen at Caparo), Chrysolampis mosquitus
and Eucephala caerulea. Lower down in the valley
in cacao groves and especially among thickett of
Heliconia I saw Glaucis hirsutus and Phaethornis
guyi but neither of these species appears to ever
visit the Malacca Apple blossoms. In the whole
upper portion of Caura Valley, Amaxilia erythronota seems
to take the place of Eucephala caerulea for the latter
is evidently rare. Amaxilia, however, is not so common
as is Eucephala at Caparo.

  In the evening I shot a fine large fruit bat
which measured 23 inches in stretch of wings or one
inch more than the Caparo specimen. I gave it
to Chapman.