Mea culpa! Sometime in the early 1950s I shot six John-to-wits with my catapult. My cousin cleaned and fried them. We ate them with roasted breadfruit.

Decades later, I return to Jamaica each year and could hear no John-to-wits until last May when I was home. I heard many in the trees and bushes although I did not see one.

delicate beauties

For close to 50 years, I had seen no robin red breasts. In May, a pair of these delicate beauties perched briefly on my June-rose tree.

Birds of all types and sizes, hues and songs passed by my house. They nested in dead coconut trees, in shrubs and in ackee trees.

Alas! Poor grassquit and bluequit! I saw not one.

In the words of Claude McKay: "Leave the harmless dears alone!."

I am, etc.,

LOUIS ALEXANDER

HEMANS

lahemans@aol.com

Hyattville

Maryland