172 SPANISH-TOWN. 



though a master, with that of a band. Nights so 

 lovely are seen only in the tropics, and the music is 

 worthy of the night. 



The Water-Thrushes (Seiurus), one of which at 

 least is said by Wilson to be so exquisitely sweet a 

 songster, that he was never tired of listening to it, 

 though common in Jamaica, during a portion of the 

 year, I have never heard sing, perhaps because the 

 months that they spend in the island are those of 

 autumn and winter. But the Wood-Thrush [Turdus 

 77iustelinus), or May-bird, as it is provincially called, 

 is recognised as a songster rivalling even the Mock- 

 ing-bird in the brilliant execution of its melody. 

 This sober-coloured, but delightful bird does not ex- 

 tend, so far as I am aware, to the neighbourhood of 

 the Bluefields, in its transient vernal sojourn ; but 

 confines itself to the sea-side groves and plains of the 

 windward end of the island. * 



* " On the morning of the 10th [of February] I heard a Wood 

 Thrush singing his measured clear-voiced song from among a lofty 

 cluster of trees that border a ravine near by [Spanish-Town]. The 

 hills to which these Thrushes almost exclusively confine themselves in 

 this and the neighbouring parishes, are the low range of mountains 

 along the sea-shore. They come, however, occasionally, within the 

 glens at the foot of the mountains inland, passing over the plains be- 

 tween, with only just resting to pour out a morning song, in some 

 sequestered knots of trees that dot the intervening savannas. In 

 these excursive rambles away from the customary sea-side haunts, it 

 is our chance to hear them near about the town. The Wood Thrush 

 sings always from some lofty exposed branch, having a thick shelter of 

 foliage beneath his perch. His tone is clearer and louder than that of 

 the Mocking-bird, and when he sings, the latter is a listener ; not a 

 single one attempting a strain of rivalry. The Wood Thrush's song, 

 taken up immediately, is constantly trilled by the Mocking-bird for 

 Some days afterward, and is his peculiar mimic-melody for March and 



