JAMAICA—HUMMING BIRDS 
267 
(Artocarpus), with its large, rich dark-green shining leaves, and 
the stately Erythrina, or Coral-tree, whose scarlet flowers contrasted 
exquisitely with its leafless, silvery-grey stems against the background 
of bright blue sky. Ferns of all sorts and sizes, from tree-ferns 
downwards, are met with in the greatest variety and profusion. 
Oranges were but a penny a dozen, and at one place we had a 
quite distinct sort at dessert every day for a week. The Sweet-bitter 
orange is most refreshing, and makes excellent orangeade. Tangerine 
oranges are comparatively dear, only six going to the penny, but 
they are the best that I have ever tasted. The Star-apple is good, 
but covers the lips with india-rubber. The Sour-sop is unrivalled 
as a constituent of ice-creams. A wide extent of country is devoted 
to the growth of Bananas, largely the result of American enterprise 
and the patient labour of Indian coolies. 
I do not remember seeing any snakes in Jamaica, but the fierce 
little Mongoose which was imported to destroy them was not in¬ 
frequently seen. It is said that the mongoose soon found it easier to 
eat the eggs of ground-nesting birds than to hunt snakes. To this 
change of diet is attributed the extraordinary increase in the number 
of Ticks, since the said ground-nesting birds are believed to have 
preyed upon the ticks at some period of their life. Whether these 
statements give a correct account of the matter I know not; but, 
be that as it may, the ticks are a perfect nightmare, and the fear of 
them often prevented me from going into likely places in search of 
Lepidoptera. 
It is impossible to write of Jamaica without mentioning the 
Humming-birds. They were especially common in the gardens of the 
King’s House outside Kingston. Their tameness surprised me ; by 
standing quite still you might see a humming-bird visit several flowers 
on a bush, and then perch on a twig but two yards off, looking at 
you just as a robin might; after resting for a few seconds, the tiny 
creature would visit three or four more flowers, to return again to 
its perch, and this would be repeated indefinitely. Doubtless the 
exertion of feeding on the wing is considerable. 
Once I caught a humming-bird in my net, and ran perhaps fifty 
yards to show it to my wife, but it had knocked out so many of its 
feathers during that short time that I did not repeat the experiment. 
Among the flowers that I saw them visit were species of Hibiscus 
and Convolvulus. A different species, green in colour, visited the tiny 
Composite flowers of the Distreptus spicatus, Cass., while yet another 
species was seen to enter the gigantic white flowers of the Beaumontia 
grctndiflora and sit down in them. The Distreptus is very attractive 
