Mr. E. C. Taylor on the Birds of the West Indies. 159 



I remember seeing a good many birds, and being much de- 

 lighted with my first introduction to live Humming-birds, 

 which took place here. The impression derived from that day's 

 experience was, that Granada is richer in birds than Marti- 

 nique or Dominica ; but as I had not my gun on shore, and as I 

 was then quite ignorant of West Indian forms, I really cannot 

 give the name of any one species I saw. After leaving Granada 

 we pass, without stopping, the group of little islands called the 

 Grenadines, the chief of which is Cariacou. Both going and 

 returning I passed these islands in the night, and therefore saw 

 nothing of them. We then arrive at St. Vincent, the capital 

 of which is Kingstown, where the steamer calls. This is also 

 a beautiful green-looking island, not so rugged in its general 

 features as Granada, but with a lofty souffriere towards the north 

 coast, which attains a height of 4000 feet, and is said to be one 

 of the best worth seeing in the West Indies. It was once very 

 prosperous and highly cultivated, but is now very much the 

 reverse ; still I do not think it has fallen quite so low as Granada. 

 I had intended staying a fortnight in St. Vincent ; but yellow 

 fever having broken out there j ust as I was passing, I abandoned 

 that intention. From St. Vincent a beat of 100 miles dead 

 to windward brings us to Barbadoes, where the passengers by 

 the Trinidad boat have generally to tranship into the boat from 

 Demerara. Barbadoes, or " Bimshire " as it is playfully called, 

 presents a very striking contrast to the other Windward Islands. 

 The latter are beautiful, green, mountainous, covered with forest, 

 little cultivated, and very thinly inhabited ; the former is ugly, 

 brown, utterly devoid both of mountains and woods, is every inch 

 under sugar, and swarms with a very dense population. Barbadoes 

 is, I believe, just the size of the Isle of Wight ; it is rather larger 

 than Granada, St. Vincent, or Antigua, is about half the size of 

 Sta Lucia and Dominica, and about twice that of St. Kitt's. It 

 is quite harbourless, — the anchorage off Bridgetown, where the 

 packets lie, being a mere open roadstead. Bridgetown, the 

 capital, is a large, straggling, ill-built town, its only points of 

 merit being its ice-house, which is the best in the West Indies, 

 and its street-cabs, which other West Indian towns do not pos- 

 sess. Barbadoes lies quite out of the chain of the Windward 



