178 PASSERES. — MUSCICAPAD^. 



be liable to predicate of one species, what is true 

 only of another. 



It is one of the commonest birds of Jamaica, 

 both in the lowlands and the hilly districts, nor 

 is it rare even at the elevation of the Bluefields 

 Peaks. It seems to delight in the fruit and timber- 

 trees, which are thickly planted in the pens, and 

 around the homesteads of the southern coast, and 

 everywhere, in fact, where insects are numerous. 

 The larger kinds of insects form the prey of this 

 species as of the former. I have seen one pursue 

 with several doublings a large Cetonia, which, how- 

 ever, having escaped, the bird instantly snapped 

 up a Cicada of still greater bulk, and began to 

 beat it to kill it, while the poor insect sung shrilly 

 as it was being devoured. It frequently resorts 

 to a tree that overhangs still water, for the purpose 

 of hawking after the dragon-flies that skim over 

 the surface. The size of these insects, and their 

 projecting wings, would seem to make the swallow- 

 ing of them a matter of some difficulty ; for I have 

 noticed that the bird jerks the insect round by 

 little and little, without letting it go, till the head 

 points inward, when it is swallowed more readily. 

 Mr. Hill has noticed a very interesting trait in 

 this bird, so frequently as to be properly called 

 a habit. It will play with a large beetle as a cat 

 with a mouse, no doubt after its appetite has been 

 sated. Sitting on a twig, and holding the beetle 

 in its beak, it suddenly permits it to drop, then 

 plunging downward, it gets beneath the insect 

 before it has had time to reach the ground, and 



