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Sanchez S.D. Mar 12- 1921 carded ✓ Dear Doctor I suppose you are waiting to hear of the Great discovery of this trip- well don't expect too much. Have only a few skins so far- 30 or so- but they are pretty good ones. Got back here from 2 months up in the Cibao country. [I completely failed to find Calyptophilus near Almacen, where Frazar discovered it in 1883. We did see one above Cotuy[[Cotui?? in Dominican Republic]] but failed to get it] [Can only find 2 birds peculiar to the Savanna region - the Savannah sparrow, of which I got a good series - it is very common, & the [[crossed out]] Bourkira [[/crossed out]] "Boukera" (oedicnemus dom.[[?]]) which is not scarce. I shot 4 & saw a good many - But put off getting more until I got beyond Santiago - when I never saw it.] [In the arid region, saw but few birds - nothing new - Lawrencia nana occurs -] and [I shot a goatsucker (11-12 inches long) which may be nothing but a Chuck will's widow - but it appears to my defective vision to have tubular nostrils. First I thought I had Microsiphonorhis (Beck's bird) but his is much smaller wing 139mm, mine is 170mm (wing) & there are no lateral filaments to the strong rictal bristles, as I believe Chuck wills have - It was sitting on a branch near ground in dense jungle near Mao - in the arid region - my boy John King spotted it - I think there were a pair, but I never saw the other after I shot. The tubular nostrils are not what I expected, seem up on end & small. Still unless a Chuck wills has something of that sort it must be representative of Siphornis of Jamaica.] Don't expect too much until you see it, as I am too blind to see distinctly.
Transcription Notes:
as per SI instructions - no need to [[underline]]
Calyptophilus = bird genus found in wikipedia
Almacen - found "El Almacen" region in Dominican Republic in a tourist guide
could not find Frazar anywhere (found Louis Fraser but he wasn't alive in 1883)
could not find Boukera anywhere
oedicnemus = bird species found in wikipedia
Lawrencia nana - found in Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum
Microsiphonorhis - found in Catalogue of Birds of the Americas by Cory
Rollo Howard Beck - probably "Beck's bird" person
the units for the wing measurements don't make any sense as either or cm or inches so I put mm