140 PASSERES. TURDID^. 



or parasitical wild-pines, to drink from within the 

 heart-leaves at those reservoirs of collected dews, 

 which are the only resource of the birds in these 

 high mountains. His dark sooty plumage, his 

 brilliant orange bill, and his habit, when surprised 

 or disturbed, of escaping by running or flying low, 

 and sounding all the while his alarm scream till he 

 gets away into the thicket, completely identify him 

 with the European Blackbird. 



"It was in the month of July, in 18o4, that I 

 first heard the song of this Ouzel, which I would 

 call Merula Saltator, as this name preserves his dis- 

 tinctive soubriquet of Hopping Dick, and refers to 

 his characteristic length of legs, both at the tarsus 

 and the thighs. The shock of an earthquake had 

 wakened all the living tenants of the plantation at 

 which I was staying, when the voice of this bird, 

 as the alarm lulled into silence, was heard from a 

 small coppice of cedar-trees, clear and mellow. 

 Though it was less varied than the song of the Eu- 

 ropean Blackbird, it was very much like its tones 

 when it is heard over distant fields in a summer's 

 morning. I had been apprised that I should hear 

 it there, for it had sung in that grove daily at that 

 season for three or four years ; and though under 

 the disadvantage of being an anticipated song, it 

 was a very agreeable recognition of the melody of 

 the European bird. 



" The next time I heard his music was in the 

 month of May, 1836, in the same mountains. The 

 rains of the season had terminated, or only mid-day 

 showers fell, the mornings and evenings being refresh- 



