SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



5 



I spent some agreeable hours in the place 

 that had been the Botanical Garden of 

 Jamaica, and on the various trees now 

 growing to a luxurious size met with many 

 curious birds, among which this specimen 

 was perched on the highest branch of the 

 bread-fruit or cabbage-tree. He poured 

 forth his slight querulous note among a most 

 curious assemblage of the valuable indigenous 

 and exotic plants and trees of the island, on a 

 spot, once the pride of Jamaica, but now a 

 deserted wilderness. The various individuals 

 of this charming little race are, as I have 

 observed, scattered over the whole American 

 continent and its islands ; every district and 

 island producing its local inhabitants. Near 

 Kingston I found only four kinds, all known 

 to naturalists. But in Mexico the species are 

 numerous, and mostly new and undescribed. 

 Near the capital, on my arrival, scarcely one 

 was to be seen, but in the months of May 



