The mountain whistler is of the size of an English lark, and is remarkable only for its loud charming whistle, which resembles the human voice in the melodious notes; but which this bird varies in a most astonishing manner.
The thrush is nearly the size of that in England, and has much the same kind of whistle. The wren is also of the size and figure of those in England, and sings delightfully, especially early in the morning, and in the evening when other birds are at roost: for which reason it is by some, called the nightingale. What is remarkable of the singing birds of this country is, that they lose their singing faculties when taken, pine away and die, notwithstanding the greatest attention is paid to them.
There are also great numbers of owls in the woods of this island, and they make a most hideous, disagreeable noise in the night-time. Swallows and bats are here likewise in great plenty; the latter breeding in hollow trees and in old houses; but it has not yet been discovered where the swallows breed, or retire to; yet they are frequently seen flying in great flocks during the wet season, and their appearance is reckoned a sure token of approaching rainy weather.
Dominica is visited in the hurricane months by wild ducks, curlews, plovers, and snipes; but not in such numbers at a time, as they are usually seen in some West India islands, owing to there being very few spots of stagnated water in this island, and to the great quantity of land in it still covered with woods.
Shortly after the reduction of this island by the French last war, the Marquis Duchilleau, then Governor, prohibited the killing of game during the breeding season. This prohibition has since been made into a law, by the English Legislature of Dominica, as a circumstance highly necessary; not only to prevent the runaway negroes from trafficking with that commodity for arms and ammunition, but also to preserve the game, which would probably have become extinct, if an unlimitted power of destroying them had not been restrained.