CLARK: LESSER ANTILLEAN BIRDS. 
217 
birds as had not taken refuge under cover. After the eruption the 
whole island looked as if it were covered with gray snow. This 
possibly resulted in the death from starvation of many of such spe¬ 
cies as are habitually ground feeders (e. g.. Geotrygon montana). 
The ash fell in great quantities on Bequia and on Mustique, but 
appears not to have done any damage, at least as far as the avi¬ 
fauna is concerned. Further eruptions occurred on September 3 
and October 15, 1902, and on March 22, 1903, but probably their 
effect was very slight as compared with the great havoc wrought by 
the outburst of May 7. 
Neither Grenada nor the Grenadines (with the exception of 
Bequia) have ever experienced a storm severe enough to have seri¬ 
ously affected their bird life. 
Presext Status of Bird Life. 
In the West Indies, as Taylor says (Ibis, 1864, p. 157), birds are 
not nearly so abundant as in northern countries. In the islands 
under consideration, they are much commoner on Grenada than 
anywdiere else, doubtless because of the fact that this island is out¬ 
side of the hurricane belt. The Grenadines are well stocked with 
birds (although the number of species is limited), but they are not 
very plentiful in Barbados, while there is hardly a species which 
may be called common on St. Vincent. Birds seem never to have 
been common on the last-named island, a fact recorded by Ober in 
1878. 
On my first visit to St. Vincent on August 10, 1901, I was struck 
with the scarcity of birds as compared with the same or closely 
related species on Grenada, from which island I had come. Calo- 
spiza I did not meet with at all, although I had found C. cucullata 
common enough at Grenada. Elaenea, Pyrrhulagra, the black 
Coereba, Columbigallina, Holoquiscalus, and Merula could hardly 
be called even fairly common, although I had seen plenty the day 
before at St. George’s. Even the little “ Grass-bird ” (Tiaris bicolor 
omissa) was comparatively few in numbers, although as a rule 
abundant on all the Lesser Antilles. 
When I next saw the island, on October 19, 1903, coming from 
Barbados, the contrast between the conditions on St. Vincent and 
