evidence: Dominica, island country of the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It lies between the French islands of Guadeloupe and Marie-Galante to the north and Martinique to the south. The country has been a member of the Commonwealth since independence in 1978. [...] Dominica is the most heavily forested island of the Lesser Antilles. The forest is the habitat of a considerable variety of birds and animals. Two parrots—the imperial parrot, or sisserou (Amazona imperialis), and the smaller red-necked parrot (Amazona arausiaca)—are found only in Dominica. There are many hummingbirds, of which the blue-headed (Cyanophaia bicolor) is native only to Dominica and the neighbouring island of Martinique. The large frog known as crapaud or mountain chicken (Leptodactylus fallax), one of four amphibian species on the island, was long an emblematic part of Dominica’s fauna (and a national dish), but it has become highly endangered because of a fungal disease. The population is mainly of African descent, with some Europeans, people from the Indian subcontinent, and Caribs. Dominica is the only island with a relatively large and distinctive group of Carib Indians, descendants of the people who inhabited the island before European colonization. Most of the remaining Caribs, a small number of whom are solely of Carib descent, live in the approximately 3,700-acre (1,500-hectare) Carib Territory in the east of the island and are among Dominica’s poorest residents.