340 
Mr. P. R. Lowe on Birds collected 
arrived in the afternoon of the next day at the Grand Cayman 
Island, and anchored off Georgetown, the capital. Our stay 
here was limited to twenty-four hours, but in January 1904 
Sir Frederic Johnstone had previously visited the Caymans 
in the yacht f Emerald/ and thanks to this I then had the 
opportunity, in company with Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, of 
making a more extended acquaintance with the many 
interesting insular forms with which these islands abound. 
As Mr. Nicoll ( f Ibis/ 1904, pp. 577-589) has lately given a 
description of the birds he met with there, I simply add 
some notes on some of the more interesting and peculiar 
forms. Neither Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, Mr. Nicoll, nor myself 
succeeded in finding any examples of Mimocichla ravida 
Cory, a Thrush peculiar to the Grand Cayman; but I w^as 
informed by a squatter who lives on the northern side of the 
island, which is covered with tall trees and bush, that this 
bird breeds there and that he knows it well. Neither did 
we see anything of another bird which Mr. Cory has 
separated from Icterus leucopteryoc of Jamaica and to which 
he has given the name of Icterus bairdi. I covered a large 
amount of country where I should naturally have expected 
to meet with this bird, and I have read Mr. Ridgway’s 
description of it in his f Birds of North and Middle America \ 
(Mr. Ridgway has not seen an example), but I must confess 
to having some little doubt as to the status of the form. 
I make this remark because I am of opinion that, in these 
West Indian islands which are so often visited by hurricanes, 
when a bird is met with which is evidently quite rare 
and apparently struggling to exist we ought to feel quite 
sure that it is not merely a straggler from neighbouring 
islands or has been introduced, as is the case with Icterus 
icterus of St. Thomas, which I have found there but which 
does not differ from typical examples. 
Of the handsome Grand Cayman Parrot ( Chrysotis 
caymanensis Cory), I have never been able to shoot any 
examples, but I have seen it in the wild state and also in 
cages. It is quite common on the northern side of the 
island and is a well-marked species. 
