188 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



"Female, leugth, 9f in.; alar extent, 12|; wiug, 4^. 



'' Pretty common in the lowlands and cleared places. In shape and 

 habits it resembles the Mockingbird of the States. Its habit of 

 dodging in and out of the palm tops, recalls the American sj)ecies. It 

 is vastly inferior in song however, but trills very sweetly a few notes." 



There are five specimens in the collection, difi'ering in no respect from 

 an undoubted example of this species from Guiana. 



Fam. SYLVIID^. 



6. Myiadestes sibilaus, Lawr., Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. vol. 1, p. 148. 



'"Souffriere Bird.' 



'' Length, ^ , 7^ in. ; alar extent, 11 ; wing, 3^ ; tail, 3. 



" Length, 9 , 7^ in, ; alar extent, 11|; wing, 3i; tail, 3. 



"This bird has been an object of search for fifty years, and has so 

 long eluded the vigilance of naturalists and visitors to the mountains, 

 that it is called the 'invisible bird'. From being seen only on the 

 Souffriere Mountain, it has acquired the name of the ' Souffriere bird'. 

 It is popularly believed to be found only on the Sulphur Mountain, but 

 is an inhabitant of all the high ridges containing deej) woods and 

 ravines. Shy and exceedingly observant, it was not until my third 

 search for it that I captured it. Though I fear the popular belief 

 that it is a resident of this island only is erroneous, still I w;;s i)iqued 

 at the reputation it held of being invisible, and resolvetl to capture it. 

 To do this I camped five days and nights on the n)ountaiu top, 3,000 

 feet above the sea, in a cave on the brink of the crater. I got five 

 birds by using all my arts of alluiement, calling them within shot by 

 using a call taught me by the Caribs. 



" The bird is mentioned in Gosse's Birds of Jauu;ica, and considered 

 identical with the 'Mountain Whistler' {Myiadestes genibarOis) of 

 Dominica and Jamaica. This was merely conjecture, and should it 

 I>rove nothing else, 1 can claim the credit of settling the doubt. 



" There are differences in the notes of the two birds, though great 

 similarity in their habits. I send you seven specimens." 



Mr. Ober quotes Mr. Gosse as considering the St. Vincent bird to be 

 identical with the one inhabiting Jamaica. But Mr, Gosse does not 

 precisely say that, but says concerning it (Birds of Jamaica, p. 200) 

 that he received the following note from Mr. Hill : — "I find among some 

 detached notes of mine the following memorandum respecting a similar 

 bird in the smaller West India islands, 'The precipitous sides of the 

 Souffriere Mountain in St. Vincent,' says a writer describing the vol- 

 cano which so disastrously broke out there in 1812, 'were fringed with 

 various evergreens, and aromatic shrubs, flowers, and many Alpine 

 I)lants, On the north and south sides of the base of the cone were two 

 pieces of water, one perfectly pure and tasteless, the other strongly im- 

 pregnated with sulphur and alum. This lonely and beautitul spot was 



