Croix, St. Thomas, Portorico, and Cuba; and lastly, _Todus_, constituting a peculiar family, and having representative species in each of the larger islands, is especially interesting because it belongs to a group of families which are wholly Neotropical--the Momotidæ, Galbulidæ, and Todidæ. The presence of this peculiar form, with 2 trogons; 10 species of parrots, all but one peculiar; 16 peculiar humming-birds belonging to 8 genera; a genus of Cotingidæ; 10 peculiar tanagers belonging to 3 genera; 9 Coerebidæ of 3 genera; together with species of such exclusively Netropical genera as _Coereba_, _Certhiola_, _Sycalis_, _Phonipara_, _Elainea_, _Pitangus_, _Campephilus_, _Chloronerpes_, _Nyctibius_, _Stenopsis_, _Lampornis_, _Calypte_, _Ara_, _Chrysotis_, _Zenaida_, _Leptoptila_, and _Geotrygon_, sufficiently demonstrate the predominant affinities of this fauna; although there are many cases in which it is difficult to say, whether the ancestors of the peculiar genera or species may not have been derived from the Nearctic rather than from the Neotropical region. The several islands differ considerably in their apparent {66}productiveness, but this is, no doubt, partly due to our knowledge of Cuba and Jamaica being much more complete than of Hayti. The species of resident land-birds at present known are as follows:-- Cuba 68 species of which 40 are peculiar to it. Hayti 40 " " 17 " " Jamaica 67 " " 41 " " Portorico 40 " " 15 " " Lesser Antilles 45 " " 24 " " If we count the peculiar genera of each island, and reckon as (½) when a genus is common to two islands only, the numbers are as follows:--Cuba 7½, Hayti 3½, Jamaica 8½, Portorico 1, Lesser Antilles 3½. These figures show us, that although Jamaica is one of the smaller and the most isolated of the four chief islands, it yet stands in the first rank, both for the number of its species and of its peculiar forms of birds,--and although this superiority may be in part due to its having been more investigated, it is probably not wholly so, since Cuba has also been well explored. This fact indicates, that the West Indian islands have undergone great changes, and that they were not peopled by immigration from surrounding countries while in the condition we now see them; for in that case the smaller and more remote islands would be very much poorer, while Cuba, which is not only the largest, but nearest to the mainland in two directions, would be immensely richer, just as it really is in migratory birds.