6592 



Notes on the 



know the species perfectly, and told me the larger, which were shy 

 compared to the other species, were called " Spanish nightingales." 

 I mentioned the circumstances to one or two planters in the neigh- 

 bourhood, who seemed quite aware of the distinction. My visit in the 

 neighbourhood terminated without affording me the opportunity I was 

 so anxious for, of putting the question beyond doubt by procuring a 

 specimen ; but I wrote expressly to a gentleman living in the neigh- 

 bourhood to procure me one, and am still in hopes of being able again 

 to visit the locality myself. At all events my attention is awakened to 

 the point, and I may fall in with it elsewhere : it seemed about half as 

 large again as the ordinary species. 



" It was during my visit to Vere that, at a friend's house, I for the 

 first time fell in with your beautiful plates of Jamaica birds. I had 

 only time for a hurried inspection, but perhaps you may like to have 

 a few remarks on some of the species, as they occurred to me. 



" Trochilus Maria I have never seen, probably from not having 

 hitherto been sufficiently alive to the distinction between this gay 

 little bird and its congener. 



" Elania Cotta was a great puzzle when I first met with it near 

 Savanna la Mar, on the 28th of August, last year. I did not again see 

 it till I came to the mountains of Trelawny, where, during the winter, 

 I saw it four or five times. 1 shot one in the pastures of Vere on the 

 9th of April last, and on my return here saw it a few days ago (on 

 the 23rd of April) by the road-side. This still leaves it plenty of time 

 to migrate. So far as my observations of its habits go, it is an ex- 

 tremely sluggish little bird ; it will move only a few yards at the re- 

 port of a gun. Like the Tyrants, or rather Myiobii, it sits apparently 

 absorbed on a bare twig, and then suddenly begins hunting after an 

 insect among the neighbouring leaves, but never, that I have noticed, 

 makes a regular swoop after a flying insect, like Myiobius ; but they 

 are too rare for me to feel well acquainted with them. 



" A large pear tree (Persea), near the house at Long Hill Pen, 

 St. Elizabeth's, was during my visit in blossom : the insects attracted 

 brought numerous little birds after them, which were toying in dozens 

 among the branches: it was too high to distinguish them, but I shot 

 several, only one of which was unknown to me. A friend suggested 

 it was Sylvicola discolor in summer attire, and it certainly did look 

 like it. Fortunately I preserved the skin, and your plate immediately 

 put me right; it was Certhiola maritima. As the tongue was left in, 

 an inspection put me beyond doubt. I much regret I did not know 

 this at the time, as my impression is that there were more. 



