VOICE AND SONG. 37 



number of persons constantly passing within a 

 few yards, he spent most of the day. There 

 were few blossoms on the tree, and it was not 

 the breeding season, yet he most pertinaciously 

 kept absolute possession of his dominion; for 

 the moment any other bird, though ten times 

 as large as himself approached near his tree, he 

 attacked it most furiously, and drove it off, al- 

 ways returning to the same twig he had before 

 occupied, and which he had worn quite bare for 

 three or four inches, by constantly perching on 

 it. I often approached within a few feet with 

 pleasure, observing his tiny operation of dress- 

 ing and pluming, and listening to his weak, 

 simple, and often-repeated note. I could easily 

 have caught him, but was unwilling to destroy 

 so interesting a little visitant who had afforded 

 me so much pleasure. In my excursions round 

 Kingston I procured many of the same species, 

 as well as the long-tailed black and a few others, 

 as well as the one I have mentioned as the 

 smallest yet described, but which has the finest 

 voice of any. I spent some agreeable hours in 

 the place that had been the Botanical G-arden of 

 Jamaica, and on the various trees now growing 

 to a luxurious size met with many curious birds, 

 among which this specimen was perched on the 

 bread-fruit or cabbage-tree. He poured forth 

 his slight querulous note among a most curious 

 assemblage of the indigenous and exotic plants 



