THE NAUTILUS. 113 



Gerona we collected two fresh-water species, Ampullaria conical 

 AVood, ami PInjsa cnbeitsls., Plr. 



P2 Very where we saw great colonies of ants' which are there so 

 destriiL-iive to vegetation. One ot the most dread pests, however, is 

 the Jejene'^ (pronuunct-d hay-hay-nie), a tiny fly, smaller than a 

 gnat, wliosK sting, while not very painlul, raises innumerahh^ little 

 bumps on the skin whicii smart nnphasanlly. Tiiey travel in swarms 

 and are not barred by ordinary mosqnito netting, and, their favorite 

 time for attack being in the night, one can only escape their ravages 

 under a canopy ot closely woven goods. AViien the Cuban wishes 

 to take oHT a coMceited man, he says: "He knows also where the 

 jejene lays his eggs," something, by the way, which even the 

 Naturalist h;is not yet discovered. 



Of the parrots the Ard tricolor is about extinct, but the ^'^Ca/arra " 

 (^CkrysoUs leucophiiln^, ihe white-headed parrot, is still abundant, as 

 well as the '* P^n'co" {Coitnrus crops), a small paroquet with a long 

 tail. Some six thousand of these birds are exported annually for 

 pets, l)nt to be trained to talk must be taken from the nest. The 

 rare '* Cuyainn,'" known lo us as the Wood Ibis ( Tantalus loculator, 

 Linn.), seems here to adorn itself with all the glory it can borrow 

 in a tropical environment. 



Tlie giant among the trees of this Island is the Yagruma,^ whose 

 dead letives infold themselves making a good retreat for snails and 

 wasps alike. One of the abundant wild fruits is the Icaco* used in 

 preparing a sweet jelly, but this is found also in the coasts of Cuba. 

 At the foot of the Sierra de Casas we saw that peculiar Anacardium^ 

 which produces a huge seed, .-Imped like a pear, externally to the 

 fruit. The bottle palm,' called in S|)anish Barrigona, having a 

 bulge in its trunk like an Indijin club, could not fail to attract 

 attention, and another common palm was the Ji/irognana,^ with 

 slender trunk, whose leaves lilled out a circle as perfectly as a daisy. 



•Spanish " Bibijagua," Alia cephalotes. 



' (Ecacta /arena, Poey, not to be mistaken for the hirger and less vivacious 

 sand-fly. 



^ CecTopia pellata. See Prof. Simpson's reference to this and other Cuban 

 trees in llie "Collectors' Journal," Vol. [, Nos. 3, 4 and 5. His pajjer is 

 entitled : " Notes from a Collecting Trip in Cuba." 



*Anacardium occulentale, L. ' Colpothrinax wrighiii Griseb. and \TendIand. 



• Colpotlninix mirar/uano. 



