184 PASSERES. — MUSCICAPAD^. 



pair of Grey Petcharies annually nestle in the month 

 of ApriL On half a dozen less elevated ones to 

 the west of me, several Loggerheads take up their 

 locations as early as January, and build their nests 

 there. I say January, as that is their time for 

 nestling, but I see them there ordinarily by Christ- 

 mas, and I hear the clang and clatter of their 

 voices before; but it is not till the turn of the 

 year, that they unfailingly chant every morning 

 their peculiar reveille ; singing pi-pi-pihou, pi-pi — , 

 pipi-pi-pihoUf for an hour from the firing of the 

 Port Royal gun, a little before five, till the sun 

 is well up : — they then descend to some of the 

 lower vegetation round about, and alter their chant 

 from the more musical pipi-piJiou, to a sort of scream 

 of pi'i-i-i-i-hou, for the space of about twenty 

 minutes more ; when they cease for the day. It 

 was this remarkable obtrusion of their chant upon 

 the ear, before day-break, in the shortest of our 

 days, that led me to the conclusion that they were 

 the Tyrannus matuti^ms of Vieillot. BuiFon, on 

 remarking that no bird is earlier than the Black- 

 headed Pipiri, as he designates it, for he is assured 

 that it is heard as soon as the day begins to dawn, 

 gives two or three striking notes from St. Domingo 

 correspondents, in which this fact is particularly 

 recorded. A Mr. Deshayes in his communication 

 writes, that " the Pipiri seen in the forest, and in 

 ruinate lands, and in cultivated spots, thrives every- 

 where ; but more especially the Yellow-crested 

 Pipiri, which is the more multiplied species ; that 

 one delights in places that are inhabited. In winter 



