1894
March 3
(No 2)
St. Vincent.
  Previous to to-day I have met with only two or
three birds which had really musical songs and
in no one place have I heard more than one
or two individuals singing while in most places,
however favorable the conditions, there was nothing but the
squeaky chirps and winy or hissing notes of Coereba
and Euethia. But St. Vincent is evidently an
exception to the rule among West Indian islands
for its gardens and groves were ringing with
bird music the whole forenoon or at least up
to eleven o'clock. The most conspicuous and agreeable
songster was a Mockingbird which we took to be
M. gilvus. It was abundant everywhere and we were
seldom out of sound of its voice. Its song is very
similar to that of our M. polyglottis and some
of the phrases are identical but they are given
with rather less energy, there are more and longer
pauses of silence, and the bird's notes as far as
we could judge appear to be all its own. In other
words it does not "mock" at all.
  There was a Gray Wren (Thryothorus  [blank]   ) also,
colored much like our Carolina Wren and mainly
white beneath, which sang very sweetly. The songs of
different individuals varied considerably but all
began with a few low, stuttering notes very like those
of the House Wren. [delete] and included a rich trill [/delete] One
bord followed their notes with a rich trill [delete] exact [/delete]
similar, as I thought, to that of T. aedon but Chapman
thought it more resembled the song of Vireo gilvus.
  Another bird, as we both agreed, sang almost precisely
like a white-eyed Vireo.