28 ALLIGATOR POND. 



fruit of Opuntia coccinellifer, the Nopal, on which 

 the cochineal insect is fed ; it would be worth while 

 to institute experiments on the fruit of this species, 

 which is so abundant in the most sterile places in the 

 West Indies. While I was looking at a large But- 

 terfly {CaUidryas Euhule) that flitted about the ex- 

 panded blossoms, and admiring the similitude of 

 colour between the fly and the flower, both being 

 entirely of a delicate sulphur-yellow, — a Humming- 

 bird suddenly appeared probing one of the latter, 

 but was gone before I could well observe his plum- 

 age. By the ruby gleam that flashed from his 

 throat, however, I conclude it to have been the 

 Mango [Lampornis j^orphyrurus), the sides of whose 

 gorget are crimson in some lights. 



Among the joints of the tangled Prickly pear, 

 many vertical spiders' webs were hung, some of 

 which were of sufficient strength to offer considerable 

 resistance to the hand. I looked at the tenant, and 

 found it to be Nephila clavipes, a spider of exceed- 

 ing beauty. It is of large size, being an inch and a 

 half in length, exclusive of the legs, which extend 

 over a space five inches in diameter. The body is 

 lengthened, and studded with round white spots, each 

 environed with a black border, on a rich greenish- 

 brown ground, reminding one of the characteristic 

 marking of the Tragopans among birds. The ce- 

 phalo-thorax is shining black, its lustre half concealed 

 by a clothing of short silvery down ; the legs are very- 

 long, and have a remarkable appearance from having 

 a bunch of black hair set around the extremity of 

 the first and second joints, like the bristles of a bottle- 



