element in these islands is that the birds have reached them at no distant date by flight. When we consider that the trade-wind blows almost continuously over Cuba and Jamaica in the direction of Yucatan and this coast for several months in the year, it is hardly a matter of wonder that some WestIndian birds do stray so far west.

We should, however, expect to find more of them on the mainland. That this is not the case may be due to the imperfect way in which nearly the whole of this coast has been explored. No collections whatever have been made from any point between Belize and Cape Catoche, and the coast of British Honduras has only been touched in a very imperfect way.

I anticipate therefore that as our knowledge of the immediate mainland becomes more advanced, the peculiarities of these islands as regards their West-Indian element will diminish, if not altogether disappear.

I have hitherto treated of these coast-islands as a whole, but on examining them in detail they split up naturally into three groups. Leaving Meco out of the question, Holbox and Mugeres may be classed together, Cozumel by itself, and the Bay Islands of Ruatan and Bonacca by themselves.

HOLBOX and MUGERES.-The bird-fauna of these islands closely resembles that of the mainland. Of the 70 recorded specimens, 26 are migrants, 1 has a very wide range, and 43 form the more localized resident fauna. Of these 43 species, following 6 are more or less associated exclusively with Indies:-(1) Certhiola caboti (also found on Coeculiar species, but very closely allied to C. bahaipara intermedia (also found on Cozumel), cea of the West Indies and to P. pusilla Elainea martinica (also found on common species of the Lesser Anllied to E. pagana of the mainland; ris, identical with the Cuban bird.

(5) Zenaida amabilis and (6) EngyIso found on the mainland. Of the Atenicothraupis insularis and Chloro

Holbox

stilbon forficatus alone can at present claim to be peculiar, but both of them are also found on other islands. and Mugeres therefore have a very decided mainland affinity as regards their birds, a very slight peculiarity, and a WestIndian element, due most probably to quite recent or not distant casual immigration.

COZUMEL. The larger size of Cozumel and the greater time spent over the examination of its fauna gives us a total of 159 species as found within its limits. Of these 65 are migrants and 27 birds of very wide range. This leaves 66 as the number of resident species, with more or less restricted limits; 52 of these are also characteristic of the mainland, 4 are shared with other islands, 4 are strictly West-Indian, and 6 are peculiar. Of the latter, Spindalis benedicti is the only one with West-Indian affinity, the others are modified mainland forms. Harporhynchus ocellatus, one of these, is remarkable as representing a genus not found nearer than the State of Vera Cruz or the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico. Its presence in Cozumel must be attributed to casual introduction at a somewhat remote date, due perhaps to the severe northern storms which prevail in this region during the winter months.

Thus Cozumel would seem to have been separated from the mainland for a considerable period, during which time it has received casual immigrants from the West Indies, from North America, and from the mainland, some of them at dates sufficiently long ago to allow of their modification.

RUATAN and BONACCA.-These islands are very different in their physical features from those just mentioned. They are high, attaining an elevation of about 1200 feet, and have the upper portion covered with pines, instead of being low islands of recently elevated coral limestone. Mr. Gaumer's collections from these islands include specimens of 72 species, of which 42 are migrants, and 5 are of very wide range. The remaining 25 also belong almost exclusively to the mainland; but there is a decided element amongst these, with an affinity to the coast of Yucatan and its islands rather than to the coast immediately opposite. This is shown by the

presence of Vireo magister, V. ochraceus, Centurus rubriventris, and C. canescens. Crotophaga ani is the only WestIndian representative, and also belongs to Cozumel. It is difficult to account for this northern element, unless it be due to the northerly gales already mentioned. The tradewinds that strike the Bay Islands blow over the widest part of the Caribbean Sea and bring no stragglers from the West Indies.

X.-On the Birds of the Bonin Islands.

By HENRY SEEBOHM, F.Z.S.

THE arrival of a small box of bird-skins from the Bonin Islands makes it possible to clear up some of the difficulties which have surrounded the avifauna of this interesting but neglected group.

Mr. P. A. Holst left Yokohama on the 6th of April, 1889, and spent the greater part of May, June, July, and August on the Bonin Islands, calling at some of the Seven Islands both in going and returning. Collections were made at the following localities:

Hatchinow-Shima, or Fatsizio Island, about 200 miles south of Yokohama ;

Muco-Shima and Nakondo-Shima, two of the Parry Islands, nearly 600 miles south of Yokohama ;

Chichi-Shima, or Peel Island, about 40 miles further

south;

Haha-Shima, or Hillsborough Island, one of the Coffin Islands or Baily Islands, about 40 miles south of Peel Island.

The Bonin Islands were visited in 1827 by Captain Beechey, during the voyage of the Blossom;' but the zoological discoveries were not published until 1839 (The Zoology of Captain Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific and Behring's Straits, performed in H.M.S. Blossom under the command of Captain F. W. Beechey in the years 1825-28 :' Ornithology, by N. A. Vigors).

In 1828 they were visited by Baron F. H. von Kittlitz;

and an unfinished paper, "Ueber die Vögel der Inselgruppe von Boninsima," appeared in the Mémoires présentés à l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg par divers Savans,' 1830, pp. 231-248, which was followed in 1833 by some figures and short text in the third part of Kittlitz's "Kupfertafeln zur Naturgeschichte der Vögel."

For the last sixty years our information respecting the Bonin Islands and its ornithology has been of the most meagre character. In 1854 they were visited by Mr. Stimpson, who found examples of four species on the islands, which are included in a " Catalogue of Birds collected by the United States North Pacific Surveying and Exploring Expedition, in command of Capt. John Rodgers, United States Navy; with notes and descriptions of new species" (Cassin, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. 1862, pp. 312-327).

In 1882 Blakiston and Pryer published a paper on the Birds of Japan in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan' (vol. x. p. 84), in which a few waifs and strays of ornithological information respecting the Bonin Islands occur.

Mr. Holst writes:-" It seemed to me quite solemn when theSuruga Maru' cast anchor in 25 fathoms of water at Port Lloyd, on Peel Island, one of the central group of the Bonins, between high rocks and lofty gloomy hills, which shelter the harbour almost on every side. The bay has a circumference of more than three miles, and the mountains are covered with small palm trees and other tropical vegetation. The islanders soon made their appearance in sanpans and canoes, and were most of them half-naked Japanese.

"No bird can be said to be very abundant on Peel Island, but Hypsipetes squamiceps is the most so. It is very good eating, and is said to be very fat in the winter. There are a good many Blue Rock-Thrushes (Monticola solitarius), but I have only found one kind of Warbler, Cettia diphone. I have seen a pair of Buzzards and a Raven, besides some small Sandpipers and a flock of about twenty Gulls. Pigeons are said to be common in winter. There are plenty of a good-sized deer, some weighing as much as 250 lb., and green turtles as large as 400 lb.; also wild goats, wild boars, wild cats, flying foxes, &c.