170 PASSERES. MUSCICAPAD^. 



my valued friend Mr. Hill. " It is along the sea-side 

 savannas and pastures, and among the adjacent hills 

 and valleys, that the migratory flocks of the Grey 

 Petchary swarm at the beginning of September. 

 Occasional showers have given a partial freshness 

 to the lowland landscape ; the fields have begun 

 to look grassy and green, and the trees to brighten 

 with verdure, when numbers of these birds ap- 

 pear congregated on the trees around the cattle 

 ponds, and about the open meadows, hawking the 

 insect-swarms that fill the air at sun-down. No 

 sooner do the migrant visitors appear on our shores, 

 than the several birds of the species, that breed with 

 us, quit their nestling trees, and disappear from their 

 customary beat. They join the stranger flocks, and 

 gather about the places to which the migratory 

 visitors resort, and never resume their ordinary 

 abodes till the breeding season returns. 



" On their return in spring, they do not appear 

 among us many days before they become exceed- 

 ingly fat : they are then eagerly sought after by the 

 sportsman, who follows the flocks to their favourite 

 haunts, and slaughters them by dozens. The Pet- 

 chary is not exclusively an insect-feeder ; the sweet 

 wild berries tempt him. In September the pimenta 

 begins to fill and ripen, and in these groves the 

 birds may always be found, not so much gathered in 

 flocks as thickly dispersed about. It is, however, 

 at sunset that they exclusively congregate ; when 

 insect life is busiest on the wing. Wherever the 



caeca very minute, about i inch long, and no thicker than a pin, at I 

 inch from the cloaca. Sexes exactly alike. 



