THE SOUFRIERE-BIRD. 203 



dense clusters of ground-orchids. But I found few 

 birds save a sparrow or two and a sucrier, and the 

 prospect was most discouraging. 



A death-like stillness pervaded that gloomy slope, 

 disturbed only by the swirr of the volumes of mist as 

 they swept over the eastern spur, and the faint notes 

 of the soufriere-bird down below. Suddenly I be- 

 thought myself of a bird-call taught me by the Caribs 

 of Dominica ; and with such success did I use it, that, 

 in ten minutes, the hitherto silent trees were alive with 

 stirring feathered forms, hurrying forward in anxious 

 flight. The first to respond and I afterwards found 

 it always in advance of the others was a flycatcher ; 

 it flew precipitately to the very tree beneath which I 

 stood, and hopped about the branches, peering anx- 

 iously beneath ; closely following him was his mate. 

 Then the sparrows (two species) took up the cry, and 

 close behind them came the certhiolas ; but these latter 

 satisfied themselves with a glance and then went about 

 their business. The little humming-bird, the crested, 

 was the most attracted and the most audacious, and flew 

 directly for my face, halting on buzzing wings before 

 me, darting from side to side, finally alighting on a 

 branch close by, crest erected, every feather of this 

 pigmy beauty seemingly electrified, darting glances 

 in every direction. Then the rapid whirring of wings 

 gave token of the coming of the great crimson- 

 throated hummer, and he seemed as anxious, and 

 circled as closely about me, as his little cousin ; he 

 likewise perched himself upon a near twig, his back 

 and throat resplendent in the fugitive sunbeams that 

 stole through the branches. 



