92 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



doAvn to the sea and actually throw their shade upon the 

 very beach. They did so on Swan Island, and one could, 

 ^t arm's length as it were, observe the very fighting line 

 between the sea and the forest. In five yards one could 

 step from the painful eye-aching glare of the beach into 

 the dull green gloom of the woods. And here, one is 

 obliged to own it, the first things you missed were flowers. 

 Even orchids were conspicuous by their absence in the 

 shade of these Swan Island woods, which struck us as 

 being peculiar, for in the Cayman Islands they are 

 extremely abundant. In Little Cayman, almost every tree 

 seems laden with them ; while on Grand Cayman there is 

 one {Schomburghia thofnpsoniana) which is found nowhere 

 else. 



On Swan Island, almost the only patches of colour in 

 the original woods, were the many gaily-decked fungi 

 (rather a curious fact seeing how dry the woods were) ; and 

 a large and brilliant land-crab. This land-crab was rather 

 an awesome looking beast. His carapace was nearly 

 black above, but a bright and splendid purple beneath ; 

 while his walking legs were deep sealing-wax red, and his 

 claAvs or chelipeds ivory-white, each " pincer " being of 

 equal size and much elongated. When you went near 

 this crab he would positively run at you ; then sit up on 

 his hind legs, display his beautiful purple " stomacher " 

 and frantically Avave his ghostly -white claws. His chosen 

 abiding place was in the green glimmer of the woods 

 on the north side of the island, where he seemed to have 

 constituted himself a sort of ogre of a particularly creepy 

 and shuddery kind. 



In regard to the conspicuous lack of floral display 

 on Swan Island, it is worth noting that two birds which 

 take a very prominent part in the West Indies and 

 elsewhere in the polination of flowers are not found 

 here. These two birds are the honey-creeper (Cmreha) 

 and the humming-bird. I mention them because of the 

 undoubted effects which birds, as well as insects, 

 are known to exercise on vegetation and vice versa. 



