Birds. 6709 



the chimney swallow are extremely muscular, and the claws very sharp. 

 This being little more than a list of species observed, I cannot carry 

 out the comparison ; but I am convinced that the chimney swallow 

 of America is closely allied to the swift. I failed in procuring speci- 

 mens in the autumn, though I saw vast numbers, but almost inva- 

 riably at a great height. Long after the rest of the swallows had 

 retired they might be seen congregating about the tower of the cathe- 

 dral, their common roosting-place. 



Redbellied Blackcapped Nuthatch {Sitla varla). April 16th. Ob- 

 served a few of these small nuthatches in a fir wood ; secured two. 

 Length, 4 inches 3-tenths ; extent of wings, 7f inches ; wing, from 

 flexure, 2 inches 6-tenths. This species is said to be migratory. 



H. W. Hadfield. 



(To be continued.) 



Notes on the Mountain Birds of Jamaica. 

 By W. Osburn, Esq.* 



" Freeman's Hall, Trelawuy, Jamaica, 

 " July 7, 1859. 

 " My dear Sir, — 1 resume my notice of the mountain birds of this 

 portion of Jamaica, by continuing my remarks on Columba Caribbea. 

 I may first observe that the cherry tree on which they were feeding 

 I have since had good cause for supposing to be the clammy cherry 

 (Cordia collococca), though I have no botanical work at hand to 

 verify the surmise. From the two birds brought to me for sale in the 

 winter I had put down the colour of the iris as bright yellow, but I saw 

 on the present occasion that it was composed of two very distinct 

 circles, the inner hazel, the outer blood-scarlet. I was wondering at 

 the difference in a male bird I had winged, but which seemed other- 

 wise uninjured, when, on laying him on his back and applying severe 

 pressure to the ribs, so as to produce suffocation, I was surprised to 

 observe the colour of the outer circle of the irides change^ rapidly 

 during the agonies of death from blood-scarlet to bright yellow. After 

 death they slowly resumed their first colour. In this young bird, 

 which was dead when it fell, the irides w r ere bright yellow, and ex- 

 hibited no change. As all three adult specimens I procured were 

 alike in this scarlet ring, I would suggest that the natural colour of 



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



