2 CO Scott oh the Tello-v-biUcd Tropic Bird. [July 



After some preliminary work carried on at Stony llill, some 

 nine miles north of Kingston, I was able to locate myself, about 

 the 30th of December, 1S90, on an estate known as Boston, in 

 the parish of Portland, and belonging at this time to F. A. 

 Jenoure, Esq., from whom I rented the house for the succeeding 

 three months. Portland, named from the Duke of Portland, 

 Governor of the Island from 1722- 1726, is a parish at the north- 

 east end of the island, extending from the seacoast to the summit 

 of Blue Mountain range, the highest elevations of which are at- 

 tained in this region. Boston is an old sugar estate of some 

 eleven hundred acres in extent, comprising cultivated fruit land, 

 pasture, and a large area of forest or woodland. It lies between 

 Port Antonio, the principal town of the region, and Priestman's 

 River, a hamlet at the mouth of the river of the same name, 

 being nine miles from the former town and one mile from the 

 latter. The extreme north-east point of the Island of Jamaica is 

 just in front of the dwelling house of the estate. 



There is little level land at this point even near the coast. The 

 old house, remnant of the splendor of the 'sugar days,' stands 

 back from the sea perhaps a quarter of a mile and at an elevation 

 of about three hundred feet, so that the outlook on the sea is 

 peculiarly fine. The hill on w^hich the house is situated is 

 abrupt in descent for nearly if not quite a hundred feet. Between 

 the hill and the sea stretches a pasture of beautifully green grass, 

 that is kept cropped to a short law^n-like turf by many sheep and 

 cattle belonging to the place. On the far side of the field are 

 many cocoanut palms, some thatch palms, and tall graceful 

 bamboos. Passing through this growth one comes out on the 

 edge of a low cliff, some forty feet in height, and at one's feet 

 lies the Caribbean Sea. 



Daily during the stay that was made at Boston looking over 

 the panorama lying below and in front of the house, white Gull- 

 like birds were to be seen passing now one way, now another, 

 along the coast. In the distance they seemed ver}'^ much like 

 large Terns of some kind, and the people of the region were fa- 

 miliar with them under the name of 'Boobies.' 



It was rarely calm enough to launch a boat through the surf 

 during the early part of the time spent at Boston, and there were 

 so many new and interesting problems presenting themselves in 

 quick succession among the land birds, that weeks slipped by and 



