Microscopic Forms in Dust-shoroers and Blood-rain. 31 



phia, besides some Polythalmia and Spongolites. The fol- 

 lowing are American forms : — 



Arcella constricta, Eunotia quarternaria, 



Desmogonium Guayanense, ... quinaria, 



Eunotia Camelus, Gomphonema Vibrio, 



depressa, Himantidium Papilio, 



Pileus, ... Zygodon, 



Naviculo undosa, Stauroneis dilatata, 



Synedra Entomon, Guiriella Peruana, 



Fraofmenta incerta. 



A simultaneous occurrence of dust showers and falls of 

 meteoric stones, has been observed in probably eighteen 

 instances before the Christian era. During the Christian 

 QVd^^ fourteen coincidences have been observed, making thirty- 

 two in all. 



(Tables and Drawings of Infusoria in a future Number.) 



Singing Birds and Sweet Flowers in Jamaica. 

 " In tropical countries, where brilliant and varied colours 

 have been granted to the birds and flowers, song has been 

 denied to the one and fragrance to the other." This is one 

 of those flippant generalisations which people are fond of re- 

 peating, originally made without investigation, and perpe- 

 tuated without inquiry. In Jamaica it is certainly very far 

 from truth ; and I suspect would be found as groundless 

 everywhere else. The groves and fields of this sunny isle 

 ring with the melody of birds, to a degree fully equal, in my 

 judgment, to that of Europe. In the lone forests of the moun- 

 tain heights the Glass-eye Merle {Merula Jamaicensis) pours 

 forth a rich and continued song ; and that mysterious har- 

 monist, the Solitaire {Ptilogongs armillatus), utters his 

 sweet but solemn thrills, long-drawn and slow, like broken 

 notes of a psalm, so perfectly in keeping with the deep soli- 

 tude. In tlie woods that cover, as with an ever verdant 

 crown, the lower hills, the Black Shrike {Tityra leuconotus), 

 and the Cotton-tree Sparrow {Fyrrhula violacea), enunciate 

 their clear musical calls, so much alike as scarcely to be dis- 

 tinguished ; four or five notes running up the scale so rapidly, 

 as to be fused as it were together, and suddenly falling at 

 the end. There, too, sits the Hopping Dick {Merula leuco- 

 genys), and whistles, by the hour together, a rich and mellow 



