430 Miscellaneous. 



been seen on the main land. It is perfectly arboreal, never de- 

 scending to the ground. Its food is fruit of various kinds, but when 

 this is scarce it eats insects : my hunter saw one with a large hairy 

 spider (My gale) in his mouth. On seizing an insect or fruit, it 

 strikes its beak against its perch several times, apparently to kill or 

 soften it, or secure it more firmly in its beak, and then after two or 

 three bites swallows it entire. Some of the fruits it eats are about 

 the size of a damson, and have a stone, which it ejects through its 

 mouth an hour or two after eating. 



Its note is very loud and deep, and it is from this that it has re- 

 ceived its Indian name " Ueramimbe," signifying the " Piper-bird." 

 It utters its note early in the morning and in the afternoon. It fre- 

 quents the very loftiest forest trees, but is said to build its nest 

 rather lower. Its nest is said to be formed of sticks very roughly, 

 and the young are very naked and ugly. The colour or size of the 

 eggs I have not been able to ascertain. 



In ascending the Amazon, it first occurs opposite the mouth of 

 the Madeira, in some islands. In the Sohuives, as far as the boun- 

 daries of Brazil, it also occurs, and probably further. The Rio 

 Negro, however, is its head-quarters ; and there, in the numerous 

 islands which fill that river, it is very abundant. It extends at least 

 four hundred miles up the river, and very probably much further. 

 I have not heard of its occurring in the Rio Branco, Madeira, or any 

 of the other great tributaries of the Amazon, t have been informed 

 by a hunter, that towards the sources of the Rio Negro another 

 species is found, and this I hope soon to have the means of verifying. 

 —Proc. Zool. Soc.for July 23, 1850. 

 Barra do Rio Negro, March 10th, 1850. 



On the Genera Hexapus and Arges of De Haan. 

 By J. D. Dana. 



The genus Hexapus of De Haan, in his first publication of its cha- 

 racters (in Decade I. and II. of the Fauna Japonica, pp. 5 and 35) is 

 arranged near Pinnothera, which it resembles in its short obese form 

 and small size. But in his last Decade, published in 1849, which 

 contains his final remarks on classification, at p. xiv., the genus is re- 

 ferred to the vicinity of Pilumnus. The outer maxillipeds are as in 

 Pilumnus. The genus is peculiar in the fifth pair of legs being obso- 

 lete. The species is the H. sexpes (Jap. p. 63 and pi. 11. f. 6, Cancer 

 sexpes of Fabricius, Ent. Syst. Suppl. p. 344. f. 37). 



The genus Arges of De Haan (Faun. Japon. p. 21) includes only 

 a fossil species. It is Cancroid in its outer maxillipeds, and near Pi- 

 lumnus and also Menippe. The abdomen in both sexes is 7-jointed ; 

 in the male oblong-trigonal, in the female ovate. The lateral margins 

 of the carapax are parallel and entire, and the general form is much 

 like that of Cyclograpsus Audouinii and the allied. Distance between 

 the eyes one-fifth the breadth of the thorax. — Sp. A. parallelus (F. 

 Jap. p. 52, and pi. 5. f. 4) from Japan. — Silliman's American Journal 

 of Science and Arts for September 1851. 



