162 NATURAL SCIENCE [September 



its very characteristic note, is common here, and occasionally the 

 big black swift is seen near the summit of the hills. The ground- 

 dove is very abundant and two or three other doves are common in 

 the woods, so that their plaintive ' cooing ' may be heard at almost 

 any hour of the day. Swarms of cave-swallows breed in the 

 numerous caves along the shore, their nests and eggs being very 

 much like those of our common American barn-swallow. 



The part of the harbour close to Port Henderson does not- offer 

 very good conditions for marine collecting, but some particular forms 

 are abundant. The muddy and sandy bottom is literally carpeted 

 with the commonest sea-urchin, Toxopneustes, and a black holothurian 

 occurs in some numbers. The rocky shores are the homes of 

 countless chitons of several species, and of a very lively crab, 

 Grra/psus, while a few species of gastropods are represented by 

 numerous individuals. On the north shore of the harbour, which 

 is sandy and slopes gradually into deep water, the huge star-fish, 

 Pentaceros, which is so often seen as a curio in this country, is quite 

 common, while large specimens of the shield-urchin, Clypeaster, called 

 ' sea-moon ' by the coloured boys, are occasionally met with. 



Separated from the harbour proper by a narrow strip of sandy 

 soil, there lies to the north quite an extent of shallow, somewhat 

 stagnant, and near the mouth of the Rio Cobre at least, brackish water, 

 in part filled up with mangroves. This is known as the ' Slashes.' 

 The bottom here is stinking mud, and almost the only forms of 

 animal life w 7 e found in the water were crab-larvae in countless 

 quantities. Curiously enough it was in such a place that the late 

 Dr F. S. Conant discovered great quantities of a small and exceed- 

 ingly graceful Cubomedusa, which he has named TriiKdcdia. They 

 were common among the mangrove-roots in water less than two 

 feet deep, and they were not found anywhere outside of the 

 ' Slashes.' The clumps and islands of mangroves are the homes 

 of several species of herons and rails, the former called ' gaulins,' 

 the latter ' mangrove-hens.' These swamps are rich collecting- 

 grounds for the ornithologist, and, in the spring, for the oiilogist 

 as well. 



Directly across the entrance of the harbour from Port Hender- 

 son, and a couple of miles away, lies the long low sand-spit, on the 

 end of which stands the historic town of Port Royal. On the har- 

 bour side of this sand-spit are extensive clusters and islands of 

 mangroves, among which are beautiful little bodies of water, con- 

 nected by natural or artificial channels known as the ' Lakes.' The 

 water in the Lakes is from two to twenty feet deep, and the bottom 

 is usually more or less clear sand. On the roots of the mangroves, 

 which hang down into the water on all sides, there is an abundant 

 growth of sea-weed, with which are mingled oysters, ascidians, 



