The Birds of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire

This is the second and concluding part of a report on the birds of the Netherlands Antilles, the first part dealt with the birds of St. Martin, Saba, and St. Eustatius (Studies fauna Curaçao Car. Is. 6, no. 25, 1955, p. 1-82). The present part will give a full account of the birds of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire. Accompanied by my wife I stayed in these islands from September 22, 1951 until April 19, 1952, only interrupted by a week’s visit to Venezuela and the period between February 1 and March 14, 1952, when we were working in St. Martin, Saba, and St. Eustatius. Our collection of birds from Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire comprizes 986 specimens, representing 103 species, all of which have been deposited in the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam. Although part of the collection has been prepared in the field by my wife and me, a not unimportant number of collected birds was kept in the freezing rooms of the Abattoir of the Veterinary Service in Curaçao (Parera) and Aruba (Oranjestad), from where it was shipped to Holland under deep-freezing temperatures and subsequently prepared by the taxidermists of the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam. For most valuable help in this matter of preserving our specimens, which considerably facilitated our work in the field, we are greatly indebted to Mr. J. W. M. Diemont, Director, Mr. B. A. Bitter, and other employees of the Veterinary Service of the Netherlands Antilles.