12 ST. THOMAS. 



bird Sphinx, named from this resemblance. There are in their 

 flight exactly the same rapid darts, sudden pauses, and quick 

 turns, the same prolonged hovering over flowers. The most 

 conspicuous bird is called commonly in the island " Black- 

 witch " {Crotophaga ani ?). These birds are usually to be 

 seen in flocks of three or four, in constant motion amongst the 

 bushes, and screaming harshly when they apprehend danger. 

 The birds behave very much like magpies. They are somewhat 

 smaller than the English magpie and black all over. They 

 belong structurally to the family of the cuckoos {Cuculidcr). 



A large ground spider {Lycosa) is very abundant in the 

 island, inhabiting a hole in the ground about six inches in 

 depth, and from half an inch to an inch in diameter, and with 

 a right-angled turn at the bottom to form a resting chamber for 

 the spider. Some negro boys dug the spiders out for me. 

 They 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 \Vhite-ant {Ter/nes) is very common : it makes 

 large globular nests as much as two feet in diameter, 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 somewhat 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 consider- 

 able length of the gallery before I got to any of the working 

 Termites, as they had retired from the scene of danger. A 



