142 The Wilson Bulletin. 



not meet with it until dropping anchor in the harbor of St. 

 Croix, our really first stopping place, as we had gone in and out 

 of St. Thomas during the darkness of the night. Here we re- 

 corded one whose clumsy fishing tactics furnished us much 

 amusement. St. Croix, perhaps not so pleasing in approach as 

 some of the other islands later visited, was found upon short 

 acquaintance to be of interest. It is interesting to the writer, 

 at least, as offering an approach to a partial introduction to this 

 wonderful tropical world now gradually unfolding itself as each 

 day prolongs our visit to the Guyanas. 



Any recognition of the interesting plants, both native and 

 introduced, and met there for the first time, is hardly worth the 

 while, just at this time, considering that much space should be 

 given to rightly do them justice; but one easily marvels at the 

 amount of tree, shrub and herbaceous life, representative of the 

 order Leguminacse, that is met with at every turn. Then there 

 are the palms in a variety of interesting forms as well as other 

 trees and shrubs remarkable either for their oddity of shape or 

 noteworthy for their beauty of flower or foliage. 



In this letter I will not undertake to give much space to the 

 native birds met with up to this writing. I fear it would be 

 unwise as we have only our eyes and glasses to fall back on at 

 present, and to the writer, at least, their proper identification 

 is largely a matter of conjecture. 



I think I can safely say, however, that the feature of bird-life 

 in the immediate vicinity and also in the city of Georgetown, 

 British Guiana, where we remained between three and four 

 days, was the abundance of that Tyrant Shrike {Pitangus sulphur- 

 atus), or Kis-ka-dee, whose "kis; kis; kis-ka-dee" and per- 

 haps more frequently, "kis-ka-dee" can be heard from almost 

 any quarter, and all hours of the day. Here in Cayenne and 

 also in Surinam, it appears to be less plentiful. Indeed, I am 

 not altogether certain of having heard it yet in Cayenne. 



At the Botanical Garden of Demerara these birds were par- 

 ticularly numerous, as also were several flycatchers and 

 hummers. From among the beds of the Victoria regia, while 

 there, we had- the good fortune of flushing two beautiful 

 specimens of the Jacana (Jacana sjjinosa). A peculiar bird in 

 the garden, too, was the Ani (Crotophagus ani) also a species of 

 grackle (possibly Quiscalus lugubris) of which several were seen. 

 The former kept close to some gardeners who were mowing the 

 lawn ; crowding up at times so closely as to almost come in 

 contact with their scythes, presumably in quest of grubs of 

 some kind. A large oriole also attracted our attention in the 

 garden and in addition to the foregoing, several herons and one 

 large hawk were recorded. 



Another familiar bird common to the three leading cities of 

 the Guianas is {Troglodytes furvus) which in song and general 

 makeup greatly resembles our common House Wren at home. 



In Cayenne the Carrion Crow (Catharistes atrata) is an exceed- 

 ingly abundant bird, unsuspicious as the domestic fowl and 

 thoroughly at home everywhere. Numbers of them roost in the 

 tall royal palms (a beautiful grove of them by the way, and one of 

 the attractions of the city) across the street from our hotel. In the 

 harbor during the early morning hours gulls and terns are 

 common about the pounds or traps of the fishermen. A nesting 

 resort of the latter must be in this vicinity as we have seen 

 quantities of what were taken to be eggs of the Royal Tern 

 (Sterna maxima) on sale in the public market place, as are also 

 various species of wild birds such as the Toucan and Parrot, 



