THE NAUTILUS. 113 



Gerona we collected two fresh-water species, Ampullaria cornea, 

 Wood, and P/iysa cnbensis, Pl'r. 



Everywhere we saw great colonies of ants 1 which are there so 

 destructive to vegetation. One of the most dread pest?, however, is 

 the Jejene" 1 (pronounced hay-hay-nie), a tiny fly, smaller than a 

 gnat, whose sting, while not very painful, raises innumerable little 

 bumps on the skin which smart unpleasantly. They travel in swarms 

 and are not barred by ordinary mosquito netting, and, their favorite 

 time for attack being in the night, one can only escape their ravages 

 under a canopy of closely woven goods. When the Cuban wishes 

 to take off a conceited man, he says: "He knows also where the 

 jejene lays his eggs," something, by the way, which even the 

 Naturalist has not yet discovered. 



Of the parrots the Am tricolor is about extinct, but the "Cafarra " 

 (Chrysofis leucophuln), the white-headed parrot, is still abundant, as 

 well as the " Psrico " (Conurus crops), a small paroquet with a long 

 tail. Some six thousand of these birds are exported annually for 

 pets, but to be trained to talk must be taken from the nest. The 

 rare " Cayama" known to us as the Wood Ibis (Tantalus loculator, 

 Linn.), seems here to adorn itself with all the glory it can borrow 

 in a tropical environment. 



The giant among the trees of this Island is the Yagruma? whose 

 dead leaves infold themselves making a good retreat for snails and 

 wasps alike. One of the abundant wild fruits is the Icaco* used in 

 preparing a sweet jelly, but this is found also in the coasts of Cuba. 

 At the foot of the Sierra de Casas we saw that peculiar Anacardium 1 

 which produces a huge seed, shaped like a pear, externally to the 

 fruit. The bottle palm, 5 called in Spanish Burrigona, having a 

 bulge in its trunk like an Indian club, could not fail to attract 

 attention, and another common palm was the Mira guana f with 

 slender trunk, whose leaves filled out a circle as perfectly as a daisy. 



1 Spanish " Bibijagua," Atla cephalotes. 



*(Ecaclafurens, Poey, not to be mistaken for the larger and less vivacious 

 sand-fly. 



3 Cecropia peltata. See Prof. Simpson's reference to this and other Cuban 

 trees in the "Collectors' Journal," Vol. I, Nos. 3, 4 and 5. His paper is 

 entitled: "Notes from a Collecting Trip in Cuba." 



*Anacardium occidentals, L. 5 Colpothrinax wrightii Griseb. and Wendland. 



6 Colpothrtnax miraguano. 



