iio Notes on Jitiiglc and Other Wild Life. 



tlieniselves) told nic lie bad been able to keej) bis bouse almost 

 free of tbe pests by placin!^" in eacli room a l)lack-lined. tin 

 biscuit box, eacb one provided witb an opening tliree or four 

 inches square. As daylight approaches, the insects find their 

 way into this favourite nest, which during the day is covered, 

 removed, and its contents appro])riately dealt with. 



Importunately for the inhabitants, there is no native malaria 

 (i.e., no anof'lieles) in Little England; hence, the device just 

 described is not directed against disease-bearing insects so much 

 as against the local eiile.r. a vicious beast, small, aggressive and 

 almost noiseless, so that one is usually ignorant of the creature's 

 presence until he bites. 



In this connection, I am not so confident as I once was of 

 ihe su])erior eflicacy that the screening of houses and verandahs 

 affords in the tropics over a careful provision of nets over the 

 beds, and the wearing of mosquito boots. A number of houses 

 and one whole village are to be seen in the Guiana Colony pro- 

 tected after the American plan ; but with an irresponsible colored 

 population to deal with one must exercise eternal vigilance, that 

 exits are constantly watched, that the screening does not inter- 

 fere with the free ingress of the winds of heaven to every nook 

 and comer of the house — the sine qua nou of life for white people 

 in the Tropics. 



No more in equatorial lands than up north can there be 

 found agreement as to the order of excellence in fruits. 

 Which do you really prefer (always assuming that they are the 

 best of their kind), apples, peaches or pears? Which does a 

 St. Lucian like better, a ripe pineap])le (which we all know is 

 not an apple at all and doesn't grow on a pine or any other sort 

 of tree) or one of his own grafted mangos? If anybody is 

 unwise enough to ask me my preferences in tropical fruits, I 

 reply: — First of all, give me every morning for breakfast half 

 a medium-sized paw-paw, iced and served with lime-juice and 

 sugar, so that I may know the combined, fruity qualities of the 

 musk melon and the peach; then, for second choice, a russet- 

 brown sabadillo, whose pink flesh stiggests a perfumed water- 

 melon; then, a ripe-on-the-tree avocado, or alligator pear, also 

 reinforced by a ripe lime; then, an island pineapple, and, finally, 

 a St. Lucie mango. There are a dozen others in common use 



