THE MUSEUM. 



93 



net with what he terms specimens — but 

 the rude outsider terms trash — are to be 

 found in profusion there and hence do 

 I lon<^' to once more reach its now 

 bloody shores. Yes give me the full 

 paraphenalia demanded by necessity 

 for one who collects in the particular 

 branch of natural history which I have 

 chosen — namely Lepidoptera — and I 

 will run the risk of wild shooting and 

 deadly army canned mule in order 

 that I may collect and be joyful. The 

 Island of Cuba is a most splendid spot 

 to delve who would collect Birds, lUit- 

 terflies, Reptiles, Botanical specimens. 

 Shells and Crustacean horrors. I 

 make no mention of Animals for out- 

 side of Cuban vs. Spaniard very little 

 shooting of mammals can be enjoyed 

 in Cuba. As is usual in the tropics 

 the Birds in the Island are of very 

 bright colors as a rule and so great a 

 variety is presented to the notice that 

 I feel confident that he who would 

 write a history of the Cuban feathered 

 life must be possessed of great patience 

 and long life else he will hardly live to 

 complete it. Parrots by the dozen 

 varieties chatter and scream amid the 

 dense vegetation; Pigeons, of kinds the 

 Northern States wot not of, coo and 

 bill in the most approved manner pro- 

 vided by the poet; Catbirds with most 

 melodious wailing voices are ever pres- 

 ent to remind the reminiscent collector 

 of the nocturnal weeper of the Ameri- 

 can citits and Ouail and Patridge line 

 the plantation hedges in droves and 

 Guinea Hens and wild fowl unknown 

 to any ken save that of the expert 

 oologist flap their wings in defiance of 

 man and coops and wanders in large 

 numbers rarely disturbed by humanity. 

 On my own particular branch of study 

 we have in Cuba a plentiful represen- 

 tation. The most superb varieties of 

 Butterflies and Moths exist in profu- 

 sion. I remember in particular during 

 my last trip there in 1895, that I found 

 the beautiful Uclicoiiia citaritonia in 

 exceedingly great numbers. Several 

 varieties of the rare Papilios were 

 also very common and the moths 



were both beautiful and plentiful, the 

 exhibiting of a bright light in the open 

 at dusk being all that was necessary in 

 order that a large collection might be 

 made. In the other orders ot insect 

 life there were many really wonderful 

 examples of ugly and yet beautiful 

 crawly things. The much talked of 

 Tarantula, for instance exists there in 

 considerable and most uncomfortable 

 profusion and I must say concerning 

 that creature that to the contrary of 

 my considering the newspaper stories 

 concerning its horrible appearance to 

 be exaggerated, I sincerely believe 

 that the usual reports you read con- 

 cerning this nasty sprawling hairy 

 monster of a spider hardly do justice 

 to his creepy ugliness. One time in 

 particular I remember one day seeing 

 one, in which my whole being record- 

 ed a sickish chilling sensation which 

 commenced in the Medulla oblongata 

 and ended in my hair. On this day I 

 saw a great big one run across the 

 stone floor of a sugar house, he was 

 bristling with agressiveness and looked 

 as deadly as I ha\'e no doubt he was. 

 on this particular case he met a sud- 

 den and awful fate, for a shoe prop- 

 elled scientifically from the hand of a 

 machinists assistant caught it fairly 

 amidship and presto my spinal cord 

 registered a cold chill and my hair be- 

 came a dream of pompadour perfec- 

 tion for wonderful to behold the hairy 

 nightmare crinkled up into a little tiny 

 bunch of wool so insignificient when 

 compared with the original size of the 

 living specimen that I immediately had 

 recalled to my mind the case of the 

 lamented "She" of the immortal Rider 

 Haggard tale and her transformation 

 into nothingness in the whisking tlame 

 of life. 



Then I remember the large number 

 of trapdoor spiders, peculiar creatures 

 they are surely. In a few respects I 

 think resembling human beings, for 

 when an mnorent insect of cumbrous 

 dimensions alights near its concealed 

 door — pop he goes within and trembl- 

 ingly closes down the trap and tells his 



