SINGING-BIRDS. 
169 
{Progne Dominicensis), too, sit side by side in close 
rows on the dead frond of some tall palm, or on the 
wound beneath some cliffy hills, and were surprised to discover that it 
came from the common red-gorged Martin. Since that, — in Spanish- 
town, — on the trees about the government buildings, I have observed 
him constantly, at this time of the year, after careering about, perch- 
ing and pouring out a loud ecstatic song, quite different in tone and 
manner from his ordinary lowly twitter. His music arrests just as 
much attention as a solo from the Mocking-bird does in such a place. 
The singing is full of stammering cadences, continued and repeated 
with vehemence. When one bird has poured out his fit, another 
quits the winsr, and perching near by, delivers himself of a similar 
strain of ecstasy. They sing but one at a time, the company on the 
tree-top being only listeners. These vehement bursts of song continue 
only during the tumultuous rains in the latter months of the year. 
When these are over the rhapsodial frenzy ceases, or only very 
casually occurs. After the weather is again tranquil, and the at- 
mosphere assumes that unrivalled purity, which prevails during our 
winter, and the air is cool, and the sky and the earth fresh and 
beautiful, — the Martin is observed to resume his usual gentle habit ; 
and to twitter again his lowly muttered song in his customary galleries 
and sheds.” — Letter from Mr. Hill, 20th Nov. 1846. 
“ On occasional mornings, lately, I have heard the House Martin, 
but only a single bird at a time, singing that loud peculiar vehement 
song, with some fine clear musical tones in it, which I had described 
as the rhapsodial humour of Autumn. The seasonal outburst just 
now is, however, not so long sustained as that of Autumn. The 
ecstasy is less absorbing, and there are no congregated listeners on the 
tree-top, but the singer sits as he did when he sang to the October 
rains on the uppermost and outermost dry limb, and delivers himself 
of his vehement soul of melody ; and then he takes to the wing, and 
making three or four circles, scuds under the eaves of the neighbour 
building, to join the lodgers and loiterers within doors.” — Ibid. 
Feb. 20th, 1847. 
In these communications, my friend has since informed me that he 
has confounded the Cave Swallow with the Blue Progne. Both 
species inhabit the public buildings in Spanish Town, the former ex- 
clusively tenanting the lower, the latter the upper story, neither species 
intruding on the domain of the other. 
I 
