THE NAUTILUS. 101 



lowly kingdom of crawling things, but for the student also who 

 searches out their haunts. 



It was quite natural that the first shells collected by the writer 

 should have been those introduced by commerce, namely, Rumina 

 decollata, Linn., and SubuUna octona, Brug., but surely I must have 

 seemed, both to natives and tourists, more like an escape from some 

 asylum than a would-be naturalist, engaged, as I was, in turning 

 over unceremoniously the flower-stands in the Parque de Colon, 

 right in the heart of Havana, 



It was 1878 that Arango published a catalogue' of Cuban shells 

 ifvbich included also those from the Isle of Pines. In it 578 land forms 

 alone are enumerated, but since that list was prepared more than a 

 hundred species and sub-species have been described. But this is 

 only a numerical evidence of the richness of the fauna. 



Arango's collection is at the Academy of Sciences, and Gundlach's 

 <* Museum " may be seen at the Institute. His (Gundlach's) obser- 

 vations were published only after the most painstaking study ; birds, 

 reptiles, insects, and shells all claiming his interest. With a con- 

 science for accuracy which is the naturalist's only passport in the 

 scienlitic world, he would delay the taxidermy of a mammal or bird 

 until he understood its anatomy and had become thoroughly tamiliar 

 with its habits. 



Though I have hardly a bowing acquaintance with ornithology, 

 there were some birds which interested me. Among them was a 

 Phaethon,' the nearly extinct "guacamayo" (^Ara tricolor'), and the 

 " carpintero real" (P/c«s bairdi). The stately flamingo {I'hoeni- 

 copterus ruber Linn.) is common enough, I suppose, but of irresistible 

 plumage. 



I was attracted by a turtle {Emys rugosn), which I saw in great 

 numbers near Camoa, and my attention was called to a curious 

 fresh-water fish' which has survived the evolutional changes of 

 nobody knows how many thousand years. Here also could be 



'"La Fauna Malacologica Cubana, par Rafael Arango j Molina," Havana, 

 1878. 



* Fhsethon fiavirostria Briindt, the only representative of the J'hxlkontida 

 which visits our Eastern seaboard. 



* Lepistosteus (Alractos(eus) tristachus, Block, a species still living in Mexico 

 and the Southern United States. 



