Chap, i.] FAUNA AND FLORA. . I3 



species of Peripatus * is found in St. Thomas, but I did not 

 succeed in meeting with any. An Agouti, a species of rodent 

 {Dasyprocia), occurs in the island, and Mr. Wyman told me 

 that it was common in the gullies near his sugar plantation.t 



I went out on a shooting excursion to the opposite side of 

 the island in pursuit of wild goats. The only game we brought 

 back was a wild common fowl which I had shot in the bushes. 

 Goats, pigs, guinea fowl, and the domestic fowl breed in the 

 wild condition in various parts of the island, being sprung, as 

 I was told, in most instances, from stock which has escaped 

 and been scattered during hurricanes. The feral fowls are 

 very wary like their progenitors, the Indian Jungle-fowl, and 

 are not at all easy to shoot. We sat down to lunch on the 

 shore. Flights of the brown pelicans {Pelicanus fuscus) kept 

 passing over our heads, flying always almost exactly over the 

 same spot on their way from one feeding ground to another. 

 We shot a number of them as they flew over, at the desire of 

 the German overseer of the farm where we had left our horses, 

 who wanted the birds for eating. I should have thought a 

 pelican to have been, next to a vulture, almost the least 

 palatable of birds, but the man said they were very good. 

 There were about 300 tame goats at the farm, and a few cows. 

 The milk was sent into the town every morning in wine bottles, 

 and fetched about eighteen pence a bottle. 



Large silk cotton trees {Eriodendron) are common, growing 

 along the road-sides in St. Thomas. These trees are shaped 

 something like walnut trees, but have a rough bark. They 

 bear large green pods full of a substance like cotton. Perched 

 in the forks and all over their branches are numerous epiphytes 

 of the pine-apple order {BroneliacecE). On the far side of the 

 island I saw several " Sand-box " trees {Hura crepitans). The 

 tree is one of the Enphorbiacece, allied to our Spurges, and has 

 a poisonous irritant juice ; but its most remarkable peculiarity 

 is its fruit. A number of seed capsules, shaped like the 

 quarters of an orange, are arranged together side by side as in 

 an orange, so as to form a globular fruit. When the fruit has 

 become quite ripe and dry, suddenly all the capsules split up 

 the back, opening with a strong spring, and the whole fruit 

 flies asunder, scattering its seeds for a distance of several yards, 

 and making a noise like the report of a pistol. I gathered one 

 of the fruits, which is called commonly " Sand-box," because it 



* See Chapter VI. 



f Mr. Wallace, "The Geographical Distribution of Animals,'' London, 

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

 West Indies, says an Agouti inhabits ^^ perhaps St. Thomas." There 

 seems to have been doubt about the matter. 



