62 Messrs. A. and E. Newton's Observations 
the arching* root-branches of which burrow Land-crabs innume¬ 
rable. The north-west corner of the Island is very beautiful, and 
contains the greatest number of forest-trees to be found in the 
place, though many of them are natives of distant lands. Along 
the sides of the ravines with which it is intersected, are to be seen 
in its glory that most stately and magnificent of the palms the 
Mountain Cabbage, the Mammee ( Mammea americana, L.), and 
the Mango ( Mangifera indica , L.), contrasting their deep emerald 
leaves with the grey foliage of the Mahogany; the many different 
species of Ficus, with their curious roots sprouting from their 
trunks and branches; the broad-leaved Bread-fruit ( Artocarpus 
incisa, L.) ; the graceful Turpentine (Bursera gummifera , Jacq.), 
in appearance recalling the Birch of northern latitudes; while 
along the margins of the streams that run among the hills are 
the so-called “gardens," whose chief characteristic is the luxuriant 
Bananas and Plantains ( Musce ) waving their wide leaves split 
into ribands by the wind, and shaped like Chinese banners. 
Above all, that most striking feature of the West Indian forest, 
the gigantic Silk-cotton tree (Eriodendron anfractuosum, D. C.) 
extends its grotesquely shapen limbs, affording a friendly harbour 
to numberless tufts of Bromeliacea , garlanded with festoons of 
trailing “ vines," and often presenting the curious spectacle of a 
tree subject at the same time to the influence of all four seasons*. 
But our object is now the birds of St. Croix; and we are loth 
to occupy the attention of our readers with too many prefatory 
remarks. Let it suffice to say, that we believe that the orni¬ 
thology of this Island has never previously been investigated, 
and that we are now far from thinking that the following is any¬ 
thing like a perfect list of the birds which occur there. The 
fact must especially be taken into consideration, that our obser¬ 
vations extended over many of the same months in both years, 
and that neither of us had much opportunity of examining what 
additions were made to its Avi-fauna by autumnal migrants and 
winter residents. It is particularly likely that the numbers 
of Sylvicolince and Scolopacidce are much understated. When 
any object was to be gained by specifying which of us was the 
observer of a fact, we have been careful to word that portion 
* See Gosse’s ‘Naturalist’s Sojourn in Jamaica/ pp. 278 and 499 . 
