Bats and Birds of Jamaica. 



6589 



bullet ; but the kernels of the raamee are extremely common, and the 

 negroes gather the fresh-dropped bread-nuts from the surface, some- 

 times in great quantities. A sickly crop of young blanched plants 

 struggle upwards in the darkness, and vast numbers of a large wingless 

 Orthopterous insect with very large antennae, apparently feed on the 

 decaying matter, and large spiders with formidable jaws, very like the 

 claws of a scorpion, creep slowly along the walls, and doubtless prey 

 on these last. I remark that 1 have often met with these deposits of 

 fruit where my captures seem to indicate only the presence of insecti- 

 vorous bats, or bats of very small size. Is it possible that the large 

 species migrate ? But it would seem that these animals perform a very 

 important part in the great scheme of nature, by sowing broadcast 

 over the country the seeds of large fruits whose bulk precludes their 

 transport by birds, and whose universal occurrence and rapid appear- 

 ance in cleared spaces we should not otherwise be easily able to 

 account for. A. friend gave me a skin of a very large species he had 

 recently shot, supposing at first it was a pea-dove; it seems about 

 twenty-four inches in expanse, and is remarkable for a very distinct 

 pale streak down the mesial line of the back ; but it is, I believe, 

 insectivorous. I think your collection contains at least four species 

 I am unacquainted with, which would make the total number fourteen, 

 instead of eleven, as the Society of Arts announce. But I have already 

 entered more fully into the subject than I intended, as I hope when 

 my specimens are sent to England to learn something of their 

 names, &c, which here I have no opportunity of getting at. 



" I spent a couple of days at the summit of the Dolphin,* and would 

 gladly have spent as many months; but it is extremely inaccessible, 

 except in the dry weather, and no accommodation near it, except the 

 house of an old Scotchman, whose hearty hospitality sheltered me 

 during my short stay. I did not remark anything unusual in birds, 

 but the plants were most tempting. I have seldom left a place with 

 more regret. The view of the sea on both sides of the island is in- 

 describably fine. It is certainly higher than Bluefields, as the view- 

 extends over the ridge to the Santa Cruz and Manchester hills 

 beyond. This latter (Bluefields), I am sorry to say, I never visited 

 whilst in the neighbourhood. 1 know the turning from the high road 

 towards the mountain extremely well, having often passed it on my 

 way from Grand Vale to Savanna la Mar ; but I can vouch for the 

 accuracy of your sketch of the beautiful Cave Bay, along which I have 

 often ridden. 



* A lofty peak in Lucea parish. — P. H. G. 



