FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 213 



singular name to the indifference with which it 

 sits on a rail while little nigger boys throw stones 

 in its direction. Having watched some of their 

 marksmanship on these occasions, having seen 

 their stones fly wide of the bird until at length it 

 seemed bored and flew away, I suspect that its 

 foolishness is more apparent than real, as its safest 

 defence is to keep still. Its very beautiful nest, 

 which I know only in drawings, is, I understand, 

 attached to the lower side of a thin twig high above 

 the ground, and in neither architecture nor position 

 can it be regarded as the work of a fool. 



The only other bird that I remember noticing 

 is the mosquito-hawk (Chordeiles), a graceful kind 

 of night-jar, several of which skimmed close to the 

 spot from which I watched the polo at Orange 

 Hall. 



As most of the snakes have been destroyed by 

 the mungoose, the reptiles of Jamaica consist chiefly 

 of lizards on land and turtles in the sea. Of lizards 

 there is some variety, but the only two that I en- 

 countered were the "Croaker" (Aristelliger 

 prcesignis), a gecko, which I heard, and a house- 

 lizard with a red protuberance at the throat, of 

 which I did not learn the name. The croaker 

 utters a dismal, haunting note, which Creoles 

 accept as a forecast of rain. One evening, after 

 dinner with the polo team, I sat in a hillside 

 verandah watching the effect of a pale young 

 moon robbing the fireflies of their lustre. Croakers 

 croaked from the dark places, and, mindful of the 

 ten-mile drive that lay before me in Mr Roper's 

 open buggy drawn by two sporting mules, I looked 

 up at the blazing Southern starlight for comfort. I 



