352 TiMEHRI. 



for the first time Myrmotheriila pygmcea, one of the 

 smallest of the Formicariidce^ he was contentedly hop- 

 ping about some creeping vines, but flew away imme- 

 diately as he caught sight of me. The curious cry " Bull! 

 bull! hxAXV oi Myrmeciza cinnamomea^ another of the ant 

 thrushes, was constantly heard in the evenings, but I 

 never could get to see the bird, although I tried several 

 times to do so. In the distance the call of this bird 

 sounds very much like the noise a man makes by blowing 

 into his cutlass handle when he is lost in the bush, and 

 some of our men declared that they had frequently been 

 led astray by it. 



Various species of the Dendrocolaptidcs, the entire 

 family of which is composed of brown birds, were often 

 seen running up the trees in quest of inse6ls and their 

 larvae, on which they feed, and all through the sultry 

 days the shrill reveille of the green-heart bird, Lathria 

 cinerea, resounded through the dark recesses of the forest 

 with untiring persistence, until one was almost distrafted 

 by the echoes. 



Both species of our large red-crested woodpeckers 

 are very common, and the noise they make when testing 

 the stability of a tree is a charafteristic forest sound. 



In spiders the Potaro seems to be very rich, and I sa\<f 

 some " fearfully and wonderfully made" members of the 

 class. One fellow had a jet-black head and legs, his 

 abdomen being adorned on the back with eight spines 

 disposed as follows : two short ones on either side a 

 little below the point of articulation with the head, two 

 a trifle shorter in the middle, two about a quarter inch 

 long at the end of the abdomen, and two immediately 

 below these a short distance from the very prominent 



