172 
SPANISH -TOWN. 
thougli a master, with that of a band. Nights so 
lovely are seen only in the tropics, and the music is 
worthy of the night. 
The Water-Thrushes {Seiurus), one of which at 
least is said by Wilson to be so exquisitely sweet a 
songster, that he was never tired of listening to it, 
though common in Jamaica, during a portion of the 
year, I have never heard sing, perhaps because the 
months that they spend in the island are those of 
autumn and winter. But the Wood-Thrush [Turdus 
mustelinus), or May-bird, as it is provincially called, 
is recognised as a songster rivalling even the Mock- 
ing-bird in the brilliant execution of its melody. 
This sober-coloured, but delightful bird does not ex- 
tend, so far as I am aware, to the neighbourhood of 
the Bluefields, in its transient vernal sojourn ; but 
confines itself to the sea-side groves and plains of the 
windward end of the island. ^ 
* “ On the morning of the lOth [of February] I heard a Wood 
Thrush singing his measured clear-voiced song from among a lofty 
cluster of trees that border a ravine near by [Spanish-Town]. The 
hills to which these Thrushes almost exclusively confine themselves in 
this and the neighbouring parishes, are the low range of mountains 
along the sea-shore. They come, however, occasionally, within the 
glens at the foot of the mountains inland, passing over the plains be- 
tween, with only just resting to pour out a morning song, in some 
sequestered knots of trees that dot the intervening savannas. In 
these excursive rambles away from the customary sea-side haunts, it 
is our chance to hear them near about the town. The Wood Thrush 
sings always from some lofty exposed branch, having a thick shelter of 
foliage beneath his perch. His tone is clearer and louder than that of 
the Mocking-bird, and when he sings, the latter is a listener ; not a 
single one attempting a strain of rivalry. The Wood Thrush’s song, 
taken up Immediately, is constantly trilled by the Mocking-bird for 
some days afterward, and is his peculiar mimic-melody for March and 
