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Bird notes abstracted  [[checkmark]]

Jérémie, Hayti. Feb. 12th 1918

Dear Richmond:

I expect to leave here for Port au Prince on the 14th by small sail boat & touch at Gonave Island en route. Ought to be 2 or 3 weeks on the way as the wind is usually ahead. I am leaving 3 cases to be shipped to the Museum by first available steamer. One may be here in a few days bound south, but few vessels touch here on north bound voyage. I don't wish to risk taking the specimens in small boat with me. There are abt. 200 skins & some skeletons belonging to abt. 55 species. Nothing new or much good. 2 skeletons (both male) of pelicans. I can't get females somehow or other. [The last attempt to reach mts. of La [[strikethrough]]Hatte[[/strikethrough]]Hotte ended in failure. I did not reach over 3,000 200 [above 000] feet. A most lovely district called Moline. Coffee right to the summits. One of my boys got sick, & I sent him back to Jérémie where he died a few days later. The [[strikethrough]]ither[[/strikethrough]]other boy got fever pretty bad. I also had some fever.

I found no hill birds except Ricordia swainsoni & Todus angustirostris. Myiadestes is not singing now & it was impossible to find it. Everybody in the hills knew it under the name "La musician." Heard many "Chat huant" in dense broken jungle country in 4^en section. Too dense to see anything. Don't know if it was Nyctibius or Microsiphonorhis. It was lovely up in the hills only for the fever. I find the right way to reach La Hotte is to march 9  miles east of Jérémie to Rossau, then up the river of Rossau to the quartier called "Catineau." This includes the north slope of La Hotte. I doubt if La Hotte is much over 5,000. I was on the hill above Moline at 3,000 (or a little more) & it was 8 miles across intervening valley "Catineau" to La Hotte. Certainly it was not 2,000 feet higher. It seems to be covered with pines. Some pine forest at Moline. It wd. be best to visit the high lands in June (Summer) when "La Musician" is singing.

I had a very pleasant camp at Moline at 2000 feet, by a clear cold river, opposite the little R.C. church. Plenty to eat, chickens, eggs, sweet potatoes, yams, milk etc. & everybody most friendly.] Am now living in hopes of Gonave Island. Cant find any body who has ever been there. It is very dry (few springs of fresh water)--soil very fertile & much good Guaiac (Lignum vitae). 

Hope these 3 cases will eventually reach you via New York all