422 Dr. Bancroft on Jamaican Fishes, S^c. 



existing in the two individuals I forward ; the better of which in some 

 respects had its upper mandible injured by the shot which killed it. 

 3dly. An Hcematopns, which does not quite agree with the characters 

 of the only three species I find described, viz. Hcern. ostrakgus, palliatus, 

 and niger. 4thly. A Sitia, perhaps new, killed with the Hamatopus at 

 Cape Gracias a Dios. The Phaeton and the Sterna were shot at sea on 

 the voyage thence. There is also a green Humming-bird, ill preserved, 

 with its nest and es'gs. 



In a chip box within the above are a variety of Insects, mostly taken 

 in my house or garden; among them are a male and a female Curculio 

 finely marked with alternate stripes of black and metallic green, and a 

 very handsome species of 5'(?/^m, (Lamarck, Anim. sans vert.) probably a 

 nondescript. Its larvae (of which two are sent in a phial) were marked with 

 alternate bands of a brick-red colour and of black ; they lived on the 

 quinate leaves of a noble Ipomsea with large corollas of the brightest 

 crimson, and descended from these, when disturbed, by a fine thread; 

 their bite caused an acute burning pain. In the same phial with 

 these will be found several Spiders, two of which are black and were 

 marked with red spots, though the red colour has since wholly disap- 

 peared by the action of the spirit. The upper of these two, with three 

 spots (formerly red) along the middle of the dorsal surface, and also a 

 vase-shaped spot on the abdomen (the colour I ought to have said was of 

 a briglit crimson in all those spots) is what Brown has coarsely called 

 the Red-arsed Spider, and is believed by all people here to be highly 

 venomous, its bite affecting the system with severe general pains for 

 months. It is chiefly found among timber and planks that have been 

 undisturbed for a time, and hence carpenters are stated to be often bitten 

 by them. I have sought for exact information on this head, but have 

 not yet been able to procure any evidence of the fact that is positive. 

 Sloane alludes to this Spider at p. 1 98 of vol. 2, No. 29, but as he had 

 only seen one in spirits, he was not aware of its having been spotted with 

 red. The lower of the black Spiders, to which the four ovaria in the 

 same phial belong, is perhaps of the same species with the former, but T 

 have not had the time to examine it minutely, and as yet only know that 



