150 TiMEHRI. 



like fingers and toes cause the little animal to adhere 

 to any foreign obje6l, which it may touch ; but these 

 digits are quite destitute of poison. Even the bite of the 

 creature would be produ6live of nothing more than a 

 very slight amount of pain, since the teeth are compara- 

 tively small and short. Up to the present time, but one 

 species of lizard, the Heloderma of Mexico, has been 

 found possessing a poison apparatus and must therefore 

 be regarded with dread. The commonest of the wood- 

 slaves of the colony, is the Thecada6lylus rapicaudus, its 

 specific name being derived from the fa6l that when its 

 tail is broken away, the reproduced part becomes quite 

 swollen and turnip-shaped. One specimen that came 

 under my notice along the Demerara river^ where they 

 seem to be extremely common among the trees, the 

 stones, and the thatch of the houses, was nearly 7 inches 

 in length, with a tail more than twice the thickness of 

 the body. Another was a constant resident in the thatch 

 of one of the houses at Eneyudah, where its curious cry 

 " sacka, sacka" was regularly heard ; but I was never 

 able to secure it. 



New Birds in British Guiana. — Recently I was able 

 to submit for examination at the British Museum, two 

 species of birds which are new to the Guiana fauna : — 

 /. Ardetta ex His 

 2. Malacoptila fusca. 

 The former is a small heron, about half the size of 

 the common shypook or chough (Ardea cyanura) ; while 

 the latter is a speckled brown barbet, which has been 

 obtained only from the Demerara river. 



