[Reprinted from ‘ West Indian Bulletin’ Vol. V.| 
THE BIRDS OF ST. VINCENT. 
INTRODUCTION, 
In continuation of the articles that have appeared in the 
Vest Indian Bulletin on the birds of Barbados (Vol. JII, 
“pp. 339-385, and Vol. IV, pp. 136-44) it is now proposed to 
publish information in respect of the interesting bird-life of 
St. Vincent. 
rs: is desirable, however, to give, beforehand, a_ brief 
dese ription of the island, the extent of the forest land, its 
configuration, soil and climate. 
The following account of St. Vincent is taken from the 
Kew Bulletin (1898. pp. 231-34) :— 
St. Vincent is one of the group of islands known in the 
West Indies as the Colony of the Windward Islands. The. 
other members of this group are St. Lucia, 21 miles to the 
north, and Grenada, 68 miles to the south-west. Barbados, 
under a separate Government, is 100 miles due east. 
“s St. Vincent was discovered by Columbus on January 22, 
1498. It is situated in 13° 10’ north latitude and 60° 57’ west 
longitude. It is 18 miles in length and 11 in breadth, and 
contains, according tv the Colonial Office List, nearly 85,000 
acres of land, about half the area of Middlesex, with only 
13,000 acres under permanent cultivation. The population in 
1891 was 41,054. The majority of the adjoining islets, known 
as the Cuanaaines, are dependencies of St. .Vineent. The 
following account of these is taken from the excellent 
- * Historical Geography of the Colonies,’ by Mr. C. P. Lucas, C.B., 
of the Colonial Office:—‘ These dependencies contained at the 
last census a population of 2,691, the largest of them being 
Bequia, the next largest Union Island and Cannouan. Bequia 
is less than 9 miles to the south of St. Vincent. It is of 
vir regular shape, long and narrow, running from north-east to 
- south-west, and it has an area of about 6 square miles. Its 
, rincipal bay is Admiralty Bay on the western side. It is 
badly watered, and perhaps hardly deserves the old account 
given of it in the history of the Caribby Islands, that “ it 
— would be fruitful enough, if it were cultivated,” for but little 
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