Birds. 



6659 



quite impossible from this point to catch a glimpse of the sea on 

 either shore as from the Dolphin's Head in Westmoreland. Indeed, 

 the Bull's Head is very improperly represented in the map as an iso- 

 lated peak ; for from its' summit it is very difficult to say whether 

 many other points in the same ridge are not even a little higher. 

 Now, its altitude in Wyld's map (1851) is given at 3140 feet. As- 

 suming this to be correct, the height of these middle ranges here- 

 abouts may be estimated at about 3000 feet They are characterized by 

 forest scenery peculiarly their own. The forest is largely composed of 

 Santa Marias (Calophyllum), whose gigantic size make the long 

 thatch-palms beneath them seem pure underwood. Besides these 

 and the arborescent ferns there is little undergrowth to mask the 

 interminable colonnades of gray trunks. The hog-hunters' paths 

 wind among them for miles, and for immense districts are the only 

 roads. This I would call the central range. In this district, which 

 includes the Black Grounds, Freeman's Hall is situated. Between 

 this and the northern coast the slope is interrupted by abrupt ridges, 

 also of limestone, so broken and precipitous that large portions of their 

 surface are inaccessible, and rendered still more so by the forest, 

 which clothes all but the precipices, and whose dense underwood 

 and general aspect is such as covers the mountains of St. Elizabeth's 

 and Westmoreland, so well described in your works. Many plants, 

 for instance a species of Begonia common in this district, do not 

 penetrate into the mountains above, nor into the cultivated hills nearer 

 the coast. These I would term the lower ranges. The cultivated hills 

 still nearer the coast, though they attain to considerable height, as the 

 magnificent views of the Carribbean Sea, which so constantly burst 

 upon the traveller, prove, Trelawny being one of the oldest and most 

 assiduously cultivated of the sugar parishes, the eminences have long 

 been cleared, the soil in consequence washed off, and only the inter- 

 vening valleys planted in canes. 



It is some points in the Ornithology of the two first districts I pro- 

 pose to consider. That the distinction I have drawn between them is, 

 even for this purpose, important, there are abundant proofs. One of 

 the most remarkable is, that while Aramus Scolopaceus abounds in the 

 lower ranges so that I never cross the woods towards evening without 

 hearing or seeing these birds, I have not met with a single instance of 

 the species in the upper range ; and the negro sportsmen confirm this 

 observation. When I first proposed to visit the central range, the 

 general remark from persons well acquainted with it was, " You will 

 find very few birds there" during the months of January and February. 



