n 
THE SOUFRIERE—BIRD. 203 
dense clusters of ground-orchids. But I found few 
birds save a sparrow or two and a sucrier, and the 
prospect was most discouraging. 
A death-like stillness pervaded that gloomy slope, 
disturbed only by the swzrr of the volumes of mist as 
they swept over the eastern spur, and the faint notes 
of the soufriére-bird down below. Suddenly I be- 
thought myself of a bird-call taught me by the Caribs 
of Dominica; and with such success did I use it, that, 
in ten minutes, the hitherto silent trees were alive with 
stirring feathered forms, hurrying forward in anxious 
flight. The first to respond —and I afterwards found 
it always in advance of the others — was a flycatcher ; 
it flew precipitately to the very tree beneath which I 
stood, and hopped about the branches, peering anx- 
iously beneath; closely following him was his mate. 
Then the sparrows (two species) took up the cry, and 
close behind them came the certhiolas ; but these latter 
satisfied themselves with a glance and then went about 
their business. The little humming-bird, the crested, 
was the most attracted and the most audacious, and flew 
directly for my face, halting on buzzing wings before 
me, darting from side to side, finally alighting ona 
branch close by, crest erected, every feather of this 
pigmy beauty seemingly electrified, darting glances 
in every direction. Then the rapid whirring of wings 
gave token of the coming of the great crimson- 
throated hummer, and he seemed as anxious, and 
circled as closely about me, as his little cousin; he 
likewise perched himself upon a.near twig, his back 
and throat resplendent in the fugitive sunbeams that 
stole through the branches. 
