INCIDENTAL HEMAHXS. 
259 
West Indies and the adjoining Isthmus. It is here 
that nature forms the channel of communication, as it 
■were, between the ornithology of the two great divisions 
of the American continent, not merely as regards species, 
but in the genera and types of form.* It is well known 
that the summer migratory birds of the northern states 
retire southward in the winter, as do those of Europe j 
and w'e suspect that the limits of their range in that 
direction are marked by the West India islands ; but 
whether this is actually the case, or whether the greater 
part retire to the warm and fertile provinces of Texas, 
Honduras, and Guatamala, is altogether uncertain, and 
the question can only be determined by actual residents 
on the spot. We should recommend to every naturalist 
who may pass the winter in the West Indies, carefully 
to note the times of arrival and departure of such birds 
as are not constant residents, and more especially to 
collect those of the latter description. Such species as 
do not migrate northward are probably characteristic 
of the southern ornithology ; and thus we might be 
able to trace the harmonious union of the two divisions 
of the continent, each connected by a slender, but well 
marked, passage in geographic configuration and zoolo- 
gical distribution. Among the humming-birds figured 
by Edwards, as inhabiting Jamaica, is a most beautiful 
one with a forked tail, quite unknown to modern col- 
lectors ; and of this family we may in general remark 
that those only of Tortola are known to our collectors. 
All the water birds of these islands require investigation 
for the same reason as we have just alluded to when 
speaking of the migratory species. The peacock-tur- 
key, a splendid birdt, is supposed to be confined to the 
forests of Honduras, and a few specimens W'ould be 
* More extended observations on tills subject will be found in the Geo- 
graphy and Classification ol' Animals, p. ()9. ; and in Murray’s bncycio. 
pfcdia of Geography. , 
t The only specimen which, we believe, was ever in this country, was 
in Bullock’s mu-seum, and was purchased for the French 
the sale of that collection, as near as we can recollect, for about -w, n e 
were too poor to secure U for the British Museum. 
s 2 
