during a Cruise in the Caribbean Sea. 309 
C(EREBA SACCHARINA (Lawr.). 
This bird seems to be in much greater danger of extinction 
than either of the previous two forms. I have only seen 
one specimen on the island of St. Vincent, where it appears 
to have been entirely ousted by C. atrata (Lawr.), a peculiar 
black form of this genus. It is becoming very rare, too, 
on Grenada. On our last visit to that island we did not 
see a single example, while on former occasions I obtained 
four. Mr. Austin Clark states, however, that it is common 
on the Grenadines. 
Mr. Ridgway has suggested (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. vol. viii. 
1885, p. 28) that the two black forms of this genus found 
in St. Vincent and Grenada may prove to be merely phases 
of the normally coloured birds ( C . saccharina) inhabiting 
the same island ; but there does not seem to be very much 
evidence in support of his contention. 
I have lately found another black form well established 
on the islands of Los Testigos, Venezuela (see below), 
where C. saccharina is conspicuous by its absence. If this 
black form is also merely a melanistic phase, as Mr. Ridgway 
would have it, it must be a phase of C. luteola ; but it is 
strange that we do not find black phases on the mainland 
or in any other of the Antillean or Caribbean islands. 
C. luteola is the form which occurs on Margarita. 
Cotile riparia (Linn.). 
A number of these Bank-Swallows were “ hawking” 
about in pursuit of insects on the top of the Souffriere, 
some little way below the crater, but a long way above 
the zone of present vegetation. Unfortunately, in my 
ascent of the volcano I had left my collecting-gun behind 
where the vegetation ceased, and so could not procure a 
specimen for identification. The birds were flying very 
low, skimming backwards and forwards over the ground 
and passing continually within a few feet of us, so that 
I was able to get a perfectly good view of them. My 
notes, taken at the time, state that they “ were of a light 
sandy colour above, with lighter rumps and white under 
SER. IX.-VOL. III. Y 
