1894
Feb. 23 to
March 4.
St. Thomas & Trinidad.
General impressions of the West Indies.
  Now that I have finished my trip "down the
islands" it may be as well to give briefly some
of the general impressions which it has caused.
  I have been struck (1) by the entire absence 
of Vultures and Swallows (Progne is of course
resident on a few of the islands and Chelidon occurs 
in winter but I did not see either species); (2)
by the scarcity of Hawks (I saw one Falco sparverius
or its close allies of the same genus); (3) by the
fact that [delete]with the [delete] except [delete]tion of[/delete] on St. Vincent
there are practically few or no musical bird voices
to be heard during a morning walk through the
towns on their outskirts or even (apparently) in the
woods on the lower sloped of the mountains; (4) that 
by day, at least, even in the early morning or
late afternoon there are literally no insect sounds
in the fields or woods near the towns; (5) that
save on Dominica and Santa Cruz butterflies and
dragon flies are comparatively scarce and inconspicuous
(we saw only one butterfly yesterday on Barbados);
(6) that house flies are everywhere exceedingly scarce
even in the towns and about decaying vegetable or
animal matter.
  Thus far I have seen only two mosquitoes and on
none of the islands, as far as I can learn, are
they ever a source of serious annoyance to the
people.
  The general scarcity of water birds is also a surprise.
I have not seen a Gull or Tern since we reached
St. Thomas.