Birds. 6833 



Mr. Smith further observed that, for his own part, he could not, as the question 

 stood, but think that there had been some defective observation^ and that further and 

 more close attention to the subject might possibly prove this to have been the case. 

 Dr. Ormerod got over the difficulty by supposing some of the small queens — or large 

 workers, as they in fticl are— hyberuated throughout the winter, being, like the queens, 

 impregnated the previous season ; but to this Mr, Smith could not assent ; it was con- 

 trary to llie observations of all previous observers. He had himself found, during his 

 researches the last twenty years, great numbers of hybernating wasps, but all had been 

 the large queens : he had never known of a single worker having been thus discovered. 

 If worker wasps hybernated, and were capable of continuing their kind, whence any 

 necessity for queen-wasps at all ? — E. S. 



Notes on the Mountain Birds of Jamaica. 

 By W. OsBURN, Esq.* 



" Dover, Metcalfe, Jamaica, 



November 29, 1859. 



" My dear Sir, — The notes I proposed sending you related to bats — ' 



not, 1 am sorry to say, to the ' Dolphin's Head.' I visited it during 



the first kw months of ray residence in the island. My acquaintance 



with its Ornithology was then only commencing, and an important 



engagement obliged me to hurry through my tour as rapidly as pos- 



I sible. 1 only spent a couple of nights there, and the intervening day 



was fully occupied in the ascent for the view. Indeed I have not a 



single note about birds, though I have since had reason to suppose 



there was much that would have repaid investigation. I noticed 



I many remarkable plants there I have not seen elsewhere, and among 



I others a Melastomaceous tree, with large white flowers, closely allied 



I to Blakea trinerva(?), whose rose-coloured blossoms are so common in 



\ lofty woods ; and ray host pointed out to me some large trees which 



■ Mr. Purdie, the well-known botanist, when there, had assured him had 



never been described, for, being something of a botanist himself, he 



took an amusing pride as the possessor of trees Science knew nothing 



about. This, however, I noticed, that the white tertiary limestone 



extended to the top, or so far as I went, and it must therefore be by 



far the loftiest peak of this formation 



*' My reasons for asking you about your extracts from Dr. Robinson's 

 MSS. were two. In the first place, we have, as I anticipated, in the 

 mountains of the east end, another dove. I have not been able to 

 ascend the mountain woods at this season myself, and the confusion 



* Communicated by P. H. Gosse, Esq., F.R.S. 

 XVII r. a 



