14 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



said that their bite was poisonous, and that they fed on lizards, 

 leaving their holes at night to search for them. The boys soon 

 grubbed one out with a knife, a great heavy venomous-looking 

 brute about three inches across. It bit savagely at my forceps. 

 The holes of these spiders were so common, that on one tolerably 

 clear patch of about an acre in extent, they were dotted over the 

 entire area at about one or two feet distance from one another. 

 I noticed the holes at once, and was astonished when the boys 

 told me they were spiders' holes. 



A species of White-ant {Termite) is very common, which makes 

 large globular nests as much as two feet in diameter, and which 

 are perched high up in the fork of a tree. The nests are made 

 of a hard brown comb. From the bottom of the tree covered 

 galleries about half an inch in breadth lead up on the surface of 

 the bark to the nest, looking like long narrow brown streaks 

 upon the trunk of the tree. The galleries usually follow a some- 

 what irregular course up the trunk to the nest, reminding one of 

 the curious deviations which are always to be seen in footpaths, 

 cut out by people walking across fields, in their endeavours to go 

 straight from one point to another. The galleries, or rather 

 tubular ways, for they have bottoms to them, are made of the 

 same tough brown substance as the nests, and are cemented 

 firmly to the bark. Though they are so broad in order to allow 

 numerous ants to pass and repass, they are only high enough 

 for the ants to walk under. I broke one of these galleries, and 

 a number of soldier Termites came out and began biting my 

 hands, hardly making themselves felt, but as brave as if they 

 had a sting. I had to break a considerable length of the gallery 

 before I got to any of the working Termites, as they had retired 

 from the scene of danger. A species of Peripatus* is found in 

 St. Thomas, but I did not succeed in meeting with any. An 

 Agouti, a species of rodent (Dasyprocta) , occurs in the island, and 

 Mr. Wyman told me that it was common in the gullies near his 

 sugar plantation.! 



* See Chapter VI. 



t Mr. Wallace, " The Geographical Distribution of Animals," London, 

 Macmillan, 1876, Vol. II, p. 63, in the account of the mammals of the West 

 Indies, says an Agouti inhabits " perhaps St. Thomas." There seems to 

 have been doubt about the matter. 



