61 
on the Birds of St. Croix. 
there hardly occurs there a single representative of those genera 
which are most typical of the birds of the Antilles as distin¬ 
guished from those of either of the neighbouring continents. 
The eastern end of St. Croix is comparatively barren, as is 
the windward side of most of the islands of the West Indian 
archipelago; and the plantations there have been mostly aban¬ 
doned, the country being now overgrown with "bush” of a 
moderate height, consisting chiefly of the "Casha” (Acacia far- 
nesiana, W.) with interspersed Cacti and Euphorbia. A chain 
of low hills rises near the sea, which runs with scarcely any in¬ 
terruption along the north side to the western end, attaining its 
greatest elevation in what is called Blue Mountain (in humble 
imitation, probably, of the lofty peak of that name in Jamaica). 
Most of these hills are clothed with the same kind of bush as 
the east end, with the exception of the Cacti. They slope 
abruptly to the sea-shore on the north and north-west; but be¬ 
tween them and the south side lie those gently undulating plains 
for the fertility of which the island is so justly celebrated. These 
are, for the most part, highly cultivated, that part of the land 
which is fit for growing the Sugar-cane being divided into regular 
squares or parallelograms, separated from each other by narrow 
strips called “ ranges,” just wide enough to allow of the passage 
of a cart, which gives the country, when viewed from the hills, 
the appearance of a vast chess-board. But here and there a tall 
line of Cocoa-nut ( Cocos nucifera,lj.), Mountain-cabbage ( Areca 
oleracea , Jacq.), or Thibet Trees ( Acacia lebbek y W.) breaks the 
horizon, while dotted about are the different “ works ” of the 
sugar estates, with their long rows of buildings, boiling, curing, 
and megass houses, the mule and cattle pens, and the lofty 
engine-chimney or windmill, according to the motive power 
employed. Shaded by towering palms and tamarinds, and 
embowered amid thickets of oleanders and oranges, stand the 
hospitable dwellings of the planters and managers, while hard 
by, almost hidden in a verdant forest of bananas or plantains, 
lie the more humble houses of the negro village. The southern 
shore, fringed with the deadly Manchioneel ( Hippomane manci- 
nilla, L.), is extremely flat, and contains a large lagoon surrounded 
by a dense grove of Mangroves ( Rhizophora mangle , L.), under 
