SINGING BIRDS. 167 



{Merida Jamaicensis) pours forth a rich and continued 

 song; and that mysterious harmonist, the Sohtaire 

 {Ptilogonys armillatus) utters his sweet but solemn 

 trills, long-drawn and slow, like broken notes of a 

 psalm, so perfectly in keeping with the deep solitude. 

 In the woods that cover, as with an ever-verdant 

 crown, the lower hills, the Black Shrike {T'ltyra leuco- 

 notus) and the Cotton-tree Sparrow {^Pyrrhula vio- 

 lacea) enunciate their clear musical calls, so much 

 alike as scarcely to be distinguished ; four or five 

 notes running up the scale, so rapidly as to be fused 

 as it were together, and suddenly falling at the end. 

 Here, too, sits the Hopping Dick {Merula leucogenys), 

 and whistles by the hour together a rich and mellow 

 succession of wild notes, clear and flute-like, like his 

 European cousin, the Blackbird. The constantly 

 reiterated call of the Red-eyed Flycatcher {Fireosylva 

 olivacea), " John to whip ! John to whip ! " heard at 

 different distances from all parts of the woods, makes 

 their green glades lively ; and the loud varied voice 

 of the White-eyed Flycatcher ( Fireo Novehoracensis), 

 sometimes soft and subdued, sometimes shrill and 

 piercing, is always heard with pleasure. 



But birds are particularly social animals ; and it is 

 chiefly in the neighbourhood of the presence of man, 

 that their melodious voices are heard, as if to cheer 

 him in his toil : the fields, and pastures, and meadows ; 

 the hedges, and hedge-row trees, that border and 

 map out his domains ; the orchards and groves that 

 surround and embosom his dwellings, affording 

 grateful fruit and shadow from the heat ; — these 

 are the situations in every inhabited country that 



