6834 Birds. 



is great between 'Mountain Witch ' and ' Blue Dove.' A number of 

 Geotrygon sylvatica* were brought to me as ' Bhie Doves;' the 

 ' Mountain Witch ' was then said to be quite different, — dark bkie, 

 with a red ' mouth ;' other negroes, on the contrary, reverse the names. 

 But I think we shall probably find that it is another Geotrygon, which 

 you heard of as the ' Blue Partridge.' But my second reason was, 

 that I saw a note in the ' Transactions of the Jamaica Society of 

 Arts,' enquiring after the volumes, accompanied by a statement that 

 on the dissolution of the 'Jamaica Society,' they were handed over to 

 Dr. Macfadyen to be presented to the old Doctor's College library — 

 Glasgow, I think. Dr. Macfadyen soon after died, and these valuable 

 notes had never since been heard of. I am afraid the old Doctor is a 

 lost classic ; all we shall ever know of him is contained in your plates 

 and quotations 



" With regard to the Convolvuli, &c., you mention as climbing over 

 dry-built walls in mountain districts, it may perhaps be of some interest 

 if I mention that in the Freeman's Hall district I do not know a single 

 instance, with one exception, of a stone wall. They are among the 

 iew architectural but very characteristic remains of slavery. To build 

 them now is vastly beyond the means of the present proprietary, even 

 if the labour could be got at any price ; rarely more is done than just 

 keep them in repair, and very often I have seen them used to mend 

 the roads. Freeman's Hall was standing forest till after Emancipation, 

 consequently the gigantic trunks of the ancient woods still lie decaying 

 across the oldest clearings. If fences are wanted, live-hedges are 

 resorted to, as much cheaper; so that the particular plants you 

 mention scarcely exist there 



" The mountains of the transition shale, as Sir H. de la Beche has 

 termed it, here come down so close to the sea, that there is, so to 

 speak, only room for a single estate between this and their base. 

 This little strip of sea-bord lies extremely low, and is very badly 

 drained, forming a chain of swamps and lagoons just behind the 

 beach. Just here, by draining, it has been rendered fit for canes; 

 but the water, as numerous aquatic plants show, always stands stagnant 

 to some depth in the trenches. Over these pieces, when the mornings 

 are bright, Acanthylis comes down (I presume from the lofty mountains 

 behind) in larger numbers than I have ever before seen. I hear them 

 arrive, screaming, just after daybreak, and when I get out find them busy 



* Some excellent naturalists in using this name of mine, have altered " sylvatica" 

 to " sylvaticiim," as if I had been guilty of a false concord. But as r^uyccv, a dove, is 

 a feminine and not a neuter noun, I must protest against the alteration. — P. H. G. 



