170 BLUEFIELDS. 



roof-ridge of the dwelling-house, and utter a shrill 

 but not unmelodious chant. From the green tus- 

 socks of the Guinea-grass fields comes the singular 

 hollow cry of the Tichicro {Coturniculus tixicrus), 

 and now and again he runs to the summit of a stone, 

 or jumps upon a wall, and warbles a sweet and low 

 song. The clear whistle of the Banana-bird {Icterus 

 leucopteryx), like the tones of a clarionet, resound 

 from the fruit trees, among whose deep green foliage 

 his gay hues, rich yellow, white, and black, glance 

 fitfully as he shoots to and fro ; and his companions, 

 the little Blue Quits [Euphonia Jamaica), equally 

 devoted admirers of a ripe sour-sop or custard-apple, 

 accompany his loud notes with strains of their own, 

 full of soft warbling music. And the most minute 

 of birds, the tiny Vervain Humming-bird {MeUisuga 

 humilis), not larger than a school-boy's thumb, utters 

 a song so sweet, but of sounds so attenuated withal, 

 that you wonder who the musician can be, and are 

 ready to think it the voice of an invisible fairy ; when 

 presently you see the atom of a performer perched on 

 the very topmost twig of a mango or orange-tree, his 

 slender beak open and his spangled throat quivering, 

 as if he would expire his little soul in the effort. 



But there is one master-musician, whose varied 

 notes leave the efforts of his rivals at an immeasurable 

 distance behind him. It is he that makes our sunny 

 glades and shady groves eminently melodious, by 

 night and day, sustaining almost the whole burden 

 himself. 



AevZpeoov ev ireTaXoiffi Kade^Ofihr] trvKwoiaiv, 

 H TE (&0|Ua rpunswaa. ^eei TroAuTj^ea (pwvw- 



Odyss. xix. 520. 



