332 
Mr. P. R. Lowe on Birds collected 
two islands, which are separated by only a shallow channel 
two or three hundred yards in width, together stretch for 
four or more miles in an easterly and westerly direction. 
The easternmost has always remained uninhabited. The 
western island is now occupied by the owner and his family. 
Both islands, except where clearings have been made in 
the last fifty years, are densely wooded, and until about 
the year 1840 they had remained completely uninhabited; 
but in the old buccaneering days they seem to have occa¬ 
sionally been visited by the sea-pirates, who used them as 
a rendezvous for cutting off Spanish vessels returning to 
Europe. The islands apparently owe their name to the 
famous Captain Swan. So far as resident and really indi¬ 
genous birds are concerned, the islands are, as 1 have indicated, 
disappointing ; but, considered from a migratory point of 
view, they would no doubt form an excellent point from 
which to observe birds in the spring and autumn migrations 
to and from Central America. I was informed by the owner 
that at these seasons they were visited by a great influx of 
birds. 
Similarly to what obtains in the Caymans (180 miles 
distant), Humming-birds are not represented, and, strangely 
enough, I did not come across a single representative of the 
Tyrant family, nor any examples of the genus Coereba . 
CoLUMBA LEUCOCEPHALA Linn. 
This is a common and well-established species. It breeds 
on both islands, and is not nearly so shy as such Pigeons 
usually are. On the eastern island it is, in fact, almost 
confiding, and I shot six or seven specimens with a small 
collecting-gun in less than half an hour. 
Colours of soft parts in the fresh state :— 
Iris white or creamy white. 
Circum,orbital bare space white on a pinkish background, 
which here and there shews through the white. 
Base of mandible and maxilla dull crimson-lake, dull 
crimson, or dark brownish purple, according to age. 
