20 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



busily feeding upon the berries of a tall shrub, to the 

 pendant branches of which it was clinging, now and 

 then dashing at a fugitive bunch, apparently as ab- 

 sorbed in this occupation as in his melodious lay of a 

 few minutes before. Soon he ceased feeding, and 

 commenced preening himself upon a naked limb ; 

 then, after smoothing himself out, as it were, and 

 drawing in and stretching out his neck, he suddenly 

 dashed at a single berry, swallowed it to clear his 

 throat, and recommenced to trill. He had uttered 

 but a few notes when he silently flew to a dead branch ; 

 a few more and he winged his way to a swinging 

 " liane," where he hung suspended above a little ravine, 

 in which is sunk a tiny stream, whose tinkling waters 

 made music, though not so sweet and liquid as his. 

 Then he disappeared in the dark recesses of the forest, 

 where it would be useless to follow him, but whence 

 came at intervals the ventriloquial music that seemed 

 to float over my head and around me, though the bird 

 was afar. 



This bird is called by my mountaineer friends, who 

 have a name, and an applicable one, for everything 

 in the forest, the " ' Sifflcur Montague" or "Mountain 

 Whistler." I afterwards had one in captivity for 

 several weeks, and notes on his behavior, song, and 

 food would fill a column that my readers might think 

 could be put to better use, but which would be val- 

 uable to the ornithologist as the first records of an 

 intimate acquaintance with this species. 



But let us go on. I will leave the deep valley be- 

 hind me, with the roar of the waterfall gradually fall- 

 ing, first to a monotonous hum, then ceasing entirely, 

 and climb the bed of another water-course, now dry, 



