Nidification of the passerine birds of Hispaniola

Abstract

When I began my survey of the avifauna of the West Indies in 1927 very little was known of the nesting habits of the birds of Hispaniola, and I tried to fill this gap during the nine months that I spent on the island. It seemed especially important to secure information on the nesting of the endemic species, all of which I encountered in the field and most of which I collected. It must not be forgotten that the instinct to construct a particular type of nest is inherited, just as structural and color characters are; and although rarely mentioned by systematists, the type of nest is, I believe, frequently more indicative of relationships than anatomical characters are. This paper deals only with the Passeriformes, not only because birds of this order are the least known, but also because their nesting habits (with a few exceptions) are of greater taxonomic significance…