32 Singing Birds and Sweet Flowers. 



succession of wild notes, clear and flute-like, like his Euro- 

 pean cousin, the Blackbird. The constantly reiterated call 

 of the Red-eyed Flycatcher (Vireosylva olivacea), " John 

 to whip ! John to whip !" heard at different distances from all 

 parts of the woods, makes their green glades lively ; and the 

 loud varied voice of the White-eyed Flycatcher Vireo Nove- 

 boracensis)^ sometimes soft and subdued, sometimes shrill and 

 piercing, is always heard with pleasure. 



But birds are particularly social animals : and it is chiefly 

 in the neighbourhood of the presence of man that their 

 melodious voices are heard, as if to cheer him in his toil ; 

 the fields, and pastures, and meadows, the hedges, and hedge- 

 row trees, that border and map out his domains ; the orchards 

 and groves that surround and embosom his dwellings, aflbrd- 

 ing grateful fruit and shadow from the heat : — these are the 

 situations in every inhabited country that most resound with 

 the voices of feathered songsters. The beautiful park -like 

 estates of the southern slopes of Jamaica, present scenes 

 peculiarly inviting and suitable for the winged orchestra to 

 exercise its vocal talent ; and the notes of melodious joy are 

 pouring forth in them from earliest dawn to sunset ; aye, 

 long before dawn, and long after the veil of night has been 

 outspread. The swallows {Hirundo pcecilorna) that shoot 

 along in their arrowy traverses over the plains, now darting 

 across the placid stream, now coursing far up in the thin air, 

 almost lost in the glaring sun-beam, twitter sweetly as they 

 pass, and now and then one and another sitting on the sum- 

 mit of a low tree, commence a stammering song by no means 

 deficient in music. The Blue Martins {Progne Dominicensis), 

 too, sit side by side in close rows on the dead frond of some 

 tall palm, or on the roof-ridge of the dwelling house and 

 utter a shrill but not unmelodious chant. From the green 

 tussocks of the Guinea-grass fields comes the singular hollow 

 cry of the Tichicro {Coturniculus tixicrus), and now and again 

 he runs to the summit of a stone, or jumps upon a wall, and 

 warbles a sweet low song. The clear whistle of the Banana 

 bird {Icterus leucopteryx) like the tones of a clarionet, re- 

 sound from the fruit trees, among whose deep green foliage 

 his gay hues, rich yellow, white, and black, glance fitfully as 

 he shoots to and fro ; and his companions, the little Blue 



