of this season in these climates, has much the character of spring-time in France, it would seem that the prevailing coolness and freshness fills them with life and gaiety. Indeed never are they seen so full of clatter, and so cheerful as in the months of November and December; they then tease each other, and dash along somersetting (_voltigent_) one after the other, as a sort of prelude to love-making.’” My friend again writes me on the 30th of April:—“As I lay fever-wake on the morning of the 27th, I heard again the Loggerhead Tyrant singing most musically his day-dawn salutation of _pipi-pihou_. My sister, who listened to the early songster too, thinks that +op+, +pp+, +p+, +q+, is his morning lesson; and it is, perhaps, the closest resemblance to his chant. He is a scholar after the fashion of modern Infant schools. His alphabet and multiplication-table are a song. He repeated his lesson the following morning, but I have slept so soundly since, that I cannot say whether he has continued to wake to his learning at the firing of the Port Royal gun.” RED PETCHARY.[52] _Loggerhead._—_Great Crested Flycatcher._—+Wils.+ _Tyrannus crinitus._ _Muscicapa crinita_, +Linn.+—Aud. pl. 129. _Tyrannus crinitus_, +Bonap.+ [52] Length 9 inches, expanse 13¹⁄₄, flexure 4¹⁄₈, tail 4, rictus 1²⁄₁₀, tarsus 1, middle toe ³⁄₄. Though found in Jamaica through the winter, the Loggerhead is not then very common; but in March many begin to frequent the groves, and trees of the pastures; and may be observed pursuing each other in devious flights, uttering a rattling cry, harsh, though not loud. As they sit in a tree, they emit at intervals a loud _pirr_, in a plaintive tone, ruffling the plumage, and shivering the wings at the same time. Its general habits are those of its congeners, but it lacks their pugnacity. Very large insects form its ordinary prey: one I shot in the very act of taking a large _cicada_, while sitting on a twig, the insect was still in its throat when killed. In November I have found the stomach filled with the large red-berries of the Tropic birch. Sam tells me he has found the nest of this bird, containing four young, at the very bottom of a hollow stump, in a mountain district. BLACK SHRIKE.[53] _Judy._—_Mountain Dick._ _Tityra leuconotus._ _Tityra leuconotus_, +G. R. Gray.+—Gen. pl. 63. [53] Length 7¹⁄₂ to 8 inches, expanse 13, tail 3¹⁄₅, flexure 4, rictus 1¹⁄₁₀, breadth of beak at base ⁶⁄₁₀, tarsus 1, middle toe ³⁄₁₀.