REVISED LIST OF THE BIRDS OF JAMAICA. 
By P. L. Sclater, Dr. Sc., F.P.S. 
I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
The principal modern authorities on the ornithology of Jamaica are Gosse (1S47) 
Sclater (1861), March (1863-4), Newton, (1881) and Scott (1891-3). 
Gosse’s delightful volume, published by Van Voorst in 1847, let in a flood of light 
upon a subject previously left almost in the dark since the days of Sir Hans Sloane. 
Gosse was not, strictly speaking, a scientific naturalist, but received valuable assis¬ 
tance from the late G. R. Gray (and other friends at the British Museum), which 
rendered his excellent field-notes much more valuable. During his eighteen months’ 
stay in Jamaica he resided mainly at Bluefields, a village on the south coastof the 
Island. In his 'Birds of Jamaica’ Gosse described about 175 species of birds as met 
with in the Island.* 
Gosse subsequently (1849) planned a volume of ‘Illustrations of the Birds of 
Jamaica,’ but did not continue it after the issue of about 50 plates. References to 
his ‘Birds of Jamaica' and his “Illustrations” are quoted in this List as “Gosse” 
with the page and number of the Plate added to them. 
About the beginning of 1858 I made the acquaintance of the late Mr. W. Osburn, 
who was a friend of Gosse, and had contributed some excellent notes on the Natural 
History of Jamaica to the ‘Zoologist’ in 1859 and 1860.t 
After Mr. Osburn’s death in 1861 I was requested by his relatives to undertake the 
examination of his collection of birds, which I gladly agreed to do. The result was 
a paper on his collection, which was read before the Zoological Society of London in 
February 1861, and was published in their ‘ Proceedings ’. There were 92 species repre¬ 
sented in Osborn’s series, and amongst them were four examples of a new genus and 
species of Virconidae, to which I gave the name Laletes osburni in commemoration of 
the discoverer, besides specimens of 8 species new to the Jamaican Avifauna. The 
collection also contained a pair of a rare and little known Nightjar (Siphonorhis 
americanus), very remarkable for its elevated tubular nostrils. 
A third important paper on the birds of Jamaica drawn up by Mr. W. T. March 
was communicated by the late Prof. Baird to the Academy of Natural Sciences of 
Philadelphia in 1S63, and was published in that Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1863 and 
1864. It consisted of a series of field-notes based on the author’s own observations, 
with remarks by Prof. Baird. These are all referred to in the following Revised List. 
The next essay in point of date on the Ornithology of Jamaica is the ‘ List of the 
Birds of Jamaica’ prepared by the brothers Alfred and Edward Newton, and pub¬ 
lished in the ‘ Handbook of Jamaica’ for 1881, of which the subjoined “Revised List” 
is in fact a second edition. Like all the work in which Alfred Newton took part this 
List was carefully and conscientiously prepared. Well knowing its value and cor¬ 
rectness, I have only made such alterations in it as were in my opinion absolutely 
necessary. The original edition has been long out of print, and when I was in 
Jamaica in 1909J I willingly consented, at the request of Mr. Frank Cundall of the 
I nstitue of Jamaica, to prepare a new edition of it. I have, however, made two small 
additions to it, by stating shortly the ‘ habitat’and range of every species, and by 
appending to the List a few remarks on the general character of the Jamaican 
Avifauna. 
Since the publication of the Newtonian ‘List’ in 1881 an important addition has 
been made to our knowledge of the Birds of Jamaica by the excellent field-notes of 
Mr. W. E. D. Scott who passed the winter of 1890-i in Jamaica. Mr. Scott’s 
‘Observations on the Birds of Jamaica ,’ which were published in “The Auk’ of 1891, 
1892 and 1893 in a series of eight papers, contain a mass of information on the 
subject, which should be carefully studied by those who are interested in Jamaican 
Ornithologv. He gives a complete list of all the birds of the Island known to him 
(212 in number) and adds excellent remarks on their habits and structure. The 
* A view of the house on the “ Bluefields" estate will be found as the frontispiece of Gosse’s 
interesing volume “A Naturalist’s sojourn in Jamaica" published in 1851. 
t See Zoologist, 1859, pp. 6355, 6587, 6658, 6709, 6742. and 1860, pp. 6833, 6872, 6925. 
+ See Bull. B. O. C. Vol. xxiii, p. 70. 
