'9°5J 
CLARKE— BUTTER El. IKS OE I E'.NEZUEI.A 
amount of scrubby growth, and many varieties of cacti, including also the cassava 
plantations. Here the specimens of Apodemia w'ere taken, and a single Urainia was 
observed. The birds characterizing this region are the Spine-tail ( Syna/Lixis,) 
the cuckoos ( Diploptenis ) and the honey creepers ( Coercba)\ while among mam- 
mals the rabbit ( Leptis) is practically confined to it. 
III. The forest region, including the whole of the mountain proper, and the 
valley in which the little town of El Valle is situated. This is, entomologically, 
divisible into three sub-regions, thus: 
(a) . The forest proper, including the greater part of the mountain. 'I'his, 
again is divisible into the drier portions, and the moist areas, in the immediate 
vicinity of water. Of the drier parts, the genus Morpho is the charactistic 
feature, which in the neighborhood of streams occur such forms as Ithnniia and 
Eurema a/btihi, and, in the lower portions, ILeliconius. 
(b) . The intermediate forest region; where the little stream known as 
“El Rio,” hardly more than a brook at the time of my visit, emerges from the 
thickly wooded area. This sub-region is the home of Aniphichlora poseidon (see 
below), and in it is found in greatest abumlance. 
(c) . The valley region; consisting of cleared land wdth groves of cocoanut 
palms, interspersed with grassy patches, and the wooded borders of the river bed, 
which, at this season, is wholly without w'ater. Here occur in abundance practi- 
ally all the Pieridaj and Hesperida; of the island, and such genera as Eubapia, 
AprauUs, I.yciunui, Pluptychia, Mestra, T/iec/a, A/iosid, and Amphiihlora (feivii- 
tina). It was in this region that I saw the only specimens of l\rpi/io, Odaenis, 
and Opsiphanes observed. 
The whole fauna of Margarita is derived, as is that of the island of Trinidad, 
from South .\merica, no purely West Indian forms being present, so far as known, 
among the birds, mammals, fresh-w’ater fishes, or Lepidoptera. In fact, among 
the birds there seems to be a regular migration between the island and the main- 
land in the case of certain .species (as the parrakeet); and I have seen numbers of 
Pierida; ( Aphrissa, Pboebis, Callidryas ) in the channel, midw’ay between the 
island and the Venezuelan shore. 
The summer of 1901 was very dry* on Margarita, due to the partial fail- 
ure of the spring rains. This may in some degree account for the paucity of the 
lepidopterous , fauna, as represented by my collection. Hut it is true, without 
doubt, that there are many species, either local or erratic in occurence, which 
* While in Barbados, in January. 1904, Mr. L. T. Spencer. H. R. G. S.. who has lately spent considerable time on 
Ma rgarMa. informed me that water was now scarcer than ever: so much so indeed that the English pearl fisheries 
company at Porlamar were forced to depend on distilled sea water. The cutting down ot the forests to build ships Is 
without doubt the cause of this, as it is on the English West Indian island of Carriacou. 
