Singing Birds and Sweet Flowers in Jamaica. 269 



to outsing his rivals, and pouring forth his full expressive strains in 

 all the rich variety for which this inimitable songster is so famous. 

 Wilson has truly observed of this delightful bird, that *' the ear can 

 listen to his nmsic alone, to which that of all the others seems a mere 

 accompaniment." If all the birds of Jamaica were voiceless except 

 the Mocking-bird, the woods, and groves and gardens, would still be 

 everywhere vocal with his profuse and rapturous songs. 



In those brilliant nights, when the full-orbed moon shines from 

 the depth of the clear sky with such intensity that the eye cannot 

 gaze upon the dazzling brightness of her face, shedding down on 

 plain and sea a flood of soft light sufficient to enable one to read an 

 ordinary book with ease in the open air, — how sweet, how rich, how 

 thrilling, are the bursts of melody that rise from the trees around, 

 the serenades of wakeful Mocking-birds. Nothing to be compared 

 to it have I ever heard in England ; the night-song of a single bird, 

 however 6ne may be its execution, is no more to be put in compe- 

 tition with such a chorus, than the performance of a single musi- 

 cian, though a master, with that of a band. Nights so lovely are 

 seen only in the tropics, and the music is worthy of the night. 



The Water-Thrushes (Seiurus), one of which at least is said by 

 Wilson to be so exquisitely sweet a songster, that he was never tired 

 of listening to it, though common in Jamaica during a portion of 

 the year I have never heard sing, perhaps because the months that 

 they spend in the island are those of autumn and winter. But the 

 Wood-Thrush {Tardus mustelinus), or May-bird, as it is provincially 

 called, is recognised as a songster rivalling even the Mocking-bird 

 in the brilliant execution of its melody. This sober-coloured, but 

 delightful bird does not extend, so far as I am aware, to the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Bluefields, in its transient vernal sojourn ; but con- 

 fines itself to the sea-side groves and plains of the windward end of 

 the island. 



Besides all these, which, in various measure, perform their parts 

 in the music of our woods, and not to mention the multitudes of 

 Warblers, and Flycatchers, and Finches, whose notes, insignificant in 

 themselves, help to swell and vary the general harmony, — there is 

 another series of voices that must by no means be overlooked in an 

 enumeration of our woodland nmsic, — the plaintive cooings of our 

 numerous wild doves. In the recesses of the mountain forests, the 

 silence is broken by the loud hollow calls of the Ringtail and Blue 

 Pigeon (Columha Caribbea and rufina)^ and by the mournful ca- 

 dences of the lustrous Mountain- Witch (Geotrygon sylvatica). Tho 

 woods, that densely clothe the inferior summits, and sheet the sides 

 of the sloping hills, resound with the energetic coo of the Baldpate 

 {Col. leucocephala), the short reiterated moaning of the Partridge 

 Dove {Geotrygon montana)., the querulous call of the Ground Dove, 

 {Chamcepelia passerina), and the tender, melancholy, sobbing fall 

 of tho gentle Whitebelly {Peristera Jamaicensis). 



