Bats and Birds of Jamaica. 



6593 



" None of my specimens of Sylvicola eoa (if T am right in their 

 identity) have the rust-colour so suffused over the breast as in your 

 plate. This colour is confined to the centres of many of the feathers 

 of the under parts, so as to give the mottled appearance so common 

 among birds. I first saw it very early in July last year among the 

 mangroves that surround Savanna la Mar. On the 21st of the same 

 month I shot three, all very deeply in the moult. On the 2nd of 

 August I shot two ; they were still moulting, so I did not procure 

 more. They are very common round the town. The negro boys, from 

 their colour, call them 6 canaries.' I never saw them, except in or 

 near mangrove swamps. On my arrival on the north side a pair were 

 constantly in a tree close to a room I inhabited in Falmouth during a 

 short period. I again fell in with them in the maritime district of the 

 Ridge of Portland before alluded to, but now in much brighter plu- 

 mage. I think it more than probable it will prove that this is a 

 Jamaica species which does not leave the island. I postpone my 

 notes on S. pharetra and S. pannosa (both very accurate plates) to 

 another letter. 



" Erismatura ortygoides ? I transcribe a note I made on shooting 

 one of these ducks : — 



" 1 Camp Savanna, May 28, 1858. The bird mentioned by Mr. Gosse 

 (p. 406) must, I think, be a young example of this species. This, a 

 male in full breeding plumage, has no white on the secondaries, and 

 the head, instead of being 'dappled black and ochry white' has a jet- 

 black crown, with almost a pure patch of yellowish white on each 

 cheek. This little duck is very common on all the ponds near here, 

 feeding among water-lilies and other floating weeds. On alarm they 

 leave the edges, and remain watching the intruders from the centre of 

 the sheet of water. They dive constantly and with the greatest facility. 

 The female is browner, without the patches on the cheeks. Mr. Hill's 

 remark as to the mode of using the tail to clear the water from weeds, 

 besides the worn state of the tail-feathers, receives further probability 

 from the powerful muscles which move them.' 



" I have since seen them at Long Pond Estate, in this parish, and 

 again on a sheet of water on a very elevated plateau on the summit of 

 the range which divides Clarendon from St. Ann's. In all cases the 

 white patch on the cheeks is extremely conspicuous, much more so 

 than the beautiful cobalt-blue bill, which is only distinguishable at a 

 much nearer view than these wary little ducks are disposed volun- 

 tarily to permit. This distinctive mark makes your correspondent's 

 choice of ' ortygoides' as the trivial name still more appropriate. 

 xvii. 2 o 



