JOHN-TO-WHIT. 195 



named, evidently makes an eastward progress, ar- 

 riving at the south-west end of the island first. 

 On the 26th of March, on my return to Bluefields, 

 after a visit to Spanish town, I heard its well-known 

 voice, but my lad had noticed it a week before. 

 From this time, every grove, I might almost say 

 every tree, had its bird, uttering with incessant 

 iteration and untiring energy, from its umbrage- 

 ous concealment, Sweet- John! John-to-whit! sweet- 

 John-to-whit ! John-? whit ! sweet- John-to whit ! 

 I can scarcely understand how the call can be 

 written " Whip-Tom-Kelly" as the accent, if I 

 may so say, is most energetically on the last syl- 

 lable. Nor have I ever heard this appellation 

 given to it in Jamaica. After July we rarely hear 

 John-to-whit, but, to-whit to-whoo ; and some- 

 times a soft simple chirp, or sip, sip, whispered 

 so gently as scarcely to be audible. This, how- 

 ever, I have reason to believe, is the note of the 

 young, for I have heard young ones repeatedly 

 utter it, when sitting on a twig, receiving from 

 time to time, with gaping beak, and quivering wing, 

 the food contributed by the dam. 



The food of the John-to-whit is both animal 

 and vegetable. In March I have found in its sto- 

 mach the seeds of the Tropic Birch, and in April 

 the berries of Sweet-wood, in an unripe state. In 

 the same month, I observed one hunting insects 

 by the borders of Bluefields rivulet in which I 

 was bathing; and so intent was it upon its oc- 

 cupation, that it allowed me to approach within 

 a foot of it before it flew. It sought insects suc- 



K 2 



