OBNITHOLOGY OF THE ISLAND OF TOBAGO. 
(Continued from page 68.^ 
All the islands vary to a much greater degree in the species that 
are found in each than would he at first supposed, this is particularly 
marked in the Humming Birds. In an old work on the “ Caribby 
Islands” it is remarked, that “ Tobago and Barbadoes being the 
most southerly of all the Caribbies, arc furnished with several sorts 
of beautiful birds not to be found in the more northerly” — and of 
the Humming Birds, “ but according to the diversity of the islands, 
they also differ as to bigness and plumage.” Mon. D. Lavaysse tells 
us, “ that although the vegetation is nearly similar in both, there 
are found in Trinidad, quadrupeds and birds, which do not exist in 
Tobago ; while in Tobago there arc some birds which belong to the 
continent, and which are not found in Trinidad ; the Katraka (our 
Ortalida ruficauda ) for example ; and what is more singular, that 
although they have been brought in numbers, and have been set at 
large in the woods, they have not bred or multiplied there. The 
IIoccos, so well known in Trinidad and on the continent, are not 
found in Tobago.” 
The Baron de la Fresnaye, in a recent letter to Mr. Gould, writes 
— “It is certain, that a great many species of different islands of 
Antilles, though very nearly allied, constitute nevertheless distinct 
species, confounded in the same by authors.” 
Of the two central islands in this archipelago, the principal, as 
regards their extent, one only has been examined with any care. 
Cuba, in the present century, has had more attention directed to 
its ornithology than most of the other islands. In 1827, William 
S. Macleay transmitted to Mr. Vigors a collection of bird skins from 
that island ; these were thought worthy of attention, and Mr. Vigors, 
in bringing a short description of them before the Zoological Society, 
of which he was then secretary, made the following observations, 
81-f>9 
