Birds. 



6663 



another of the lovers of profound solitude in the forest. I shot two in 

 the earlier part of the year, and in the spring two more. They were 

 then more sociable, and not uncommon. They hunt insects with 

 considerable bustle. It will give an idea of their movements if I add 

 that on shooting them at great heights I mistook, before firing, one 

 of them for Vireosylva, and the other for Sylvicola pharetra ; but T 

 never saw it distinctly catch an insect on the wing. The stomachs 

 contained several large seeds, a plant-bug, elytra of beetles, &c. 



<e But the species which chiefly contributed its numbers to make 

 these lofty woods, during the winter so silent, resonant with the 

 cheerful sounds of spring* was Merula Jamaicensis. They were not 

 at all uncommon during the winter, coming at early dawn to the 

 edges of the forest, with the solitaires and M. leucogenys, to feed ; 

 but in the spring I found them abounding. The little river, or rather 

 brawling brook, that runs through this property, finds its way further 

 down to a deep, dark gorge, where the mountain forest gathers its 

 thickest gloom, and then disappears, like so many of our Jamaica 

 streams, with a rush down a chasm or ' sink-hole,' to reappear, say the 

 negroes, as the Rio Bueno, ten miles nearer the coast. Here these 

 beautiful birds are in great numbers ; the valley and hill-sides 

 resound with their ( quank, quank and they have, besides, a loud, 

 imperious call, uttered on the wing, very ' merulaceous '. I con- 

 stantly hear there a beautiful, low song, with a note or two in it that 

 reminded me of the solitaire, and with which I am unacquainted. 

 I cannot but think it will prove to belong to this bird ; but I hope, as 

 soon as the weather will permit, to make further observations. I find 

 it so numerous almost everywhere in the woods hereabouts as to 

 suggest migration hither in this season. Just as with Sylvicola pha- 

 retra, I would take M. leucogenys as a standard of comparison. 

 These last were abundant here in the winter, especially about orange 

 trees. They are now common, but more dispersed, as a greater 

 abundance of food and the necessities of the breeding-season would 

 suggest ; but there is no unaccountable change, apparently, in their 

 numbers. With M. Jamaicensis they seem to me to bear no propor- 

 tion ; this is, however, only a suggestion. 



" I see my limits preclude my adding, on this occasion, some 

 notices on the nidification of Tyrannus crinitus, Myiobius tristis and 

 others, as I had intended ; for I would not conclude without some 

 notice of an opportunity lately afforded me of observing the habits of 

 one of our magnificent pigeons, namely, Columba Caribbea. While 

 lately on a visit to Windsor Pen, on the leeward or western side of 



