ORNITHOLOGY OF T1IE ISLAND OF TOBAGO. 
the destruction of the wood, which appears to have taken place on 
many of the islands, would have an influence on the species which 
inhabited them. This destruction has commonly been caused by 
fire, frequently raised by mere wantonness or carelessness, and 
often extended over the whole length and breadth of the forests ; 
it must always have a temporary effect upon the natural produc- 
tions, while on islands of small extent, the destruction of the 
entire wood would materially affect, if not completely change their 
zoology. Writing of the Danish isles, M. Lcdru states, that when 
discovered by Europeans, they were covered with wood, the de- 
composition of the fallen parts of which formed a layer of soil more 
or less deep, and well suited for vegetation. These woods were 
principally destroyed by fire.* Barbadoes privateers, about 1/02, 
landed on the island of Gaudaloupe, and “ burnt a great part of 
the west end of it.” t Sir Robert Schomburgk states, “ that it is 
a fact which remains uncontcsted, that within the last fifty years, 
Barbadoes was much more wooded than it is now,” J and that the 
greater part of the cocoa-nut trees on the coast regions, were 
destroyed during the awful hurricane of 1831. § In the island of 
Tobago, there seem to have been at one time a few species which 
do not now exist. In an old work relating to “ The Famous and 
Fertile Island of Tobago,” by Captain John Poyntz — of fowl, he 
enumerates and describes the bill-bird (i. e. toucan), blackbird, 
booby, blew-hcadcd parrot, two sorts of parraketocs, macaw, fla- 
mingo, duck, sea-gull, sea-mew, plover, turtle-dove, man-of-war-bird, 
bird of paradise or kingfisher, pelican, cockerrico or Tobago phea- 
sants, curlews, wood-pigeon, and many other birds ; and we do not 
think that Toucans would have escaped the notice of our corres- 
pondent, had they been now found on the island. In Tobago, as 
described in the work of Davies, we have notice of mammalia which 
do not now exist upon it ; and of the ornithology he says, “ not to 
mention the*wood-quists, turtles, partridges, and parrots, which arc 
commonly seen there, it affords abundance of other birds not seen 
in Europe.” There are also other causes which may change the 
Zoology of those islands in a remarkable degree. They are swept 
over by hurricanes creating immense devastation. Tobago, in 1780, 
was visited by a severe hurricane, but we have no record of its 
* II. p. 367. t Schomb. Barbadoes, p. 309. + P. 27. § P- 649. 
87-7'» 
