56 
Fauna os City Environs. 
Chenopodium ambrosioidcs Linn., Phyllanthus hypericifolia and P. 
Xiruri which are enlivened by a fauna peculiar to the city and its en- 
virons. Next to the inquisitive little chap which immediately after land- 
ing attracted my attention so forcibly with its “Qu'est-ce-que-dit,” 1 took 
equal interest in the numerous carrion crows, Cathartes aura and C. 
foetens 111., which, as proteges of the law have become almost as tame 
as domestic fowls, because anybody who either within the city or its 
environs wants to sacrifice the bird to his love of sport, is mulcted in a 
fine of 50 dollars. There canned however be any cleaner sanitary police 
than these creatures: indolent and sullen they perch with relaxed wings 
upon the fences, hedges, roofs, and trees until the tempting smell of a 
carcase or other refuse allures them to the open drains and street gutters, 
or onto the pastures beyond the city, to start their work of des- 
truction on some dead beast which in a few hours they have already 
changed into a cleanly prepared skeleton. 
201. Outside the city, just the same as inside, one hears repeated 
from out of every tree the everlasting question “Qu’est-ce que-dit” of the 
Tyrann us sulpha rat us or T. flue us which, together with its relatives, 
the T. crudclis Sw. and T. Licior, constitute the main body of the feath- 
ered army of occupation. T. flams is the most unsubdued of the whole 
family, the fear and terror of its smaller mates which it only too gladly 
chases or robs of its young and eggs, just as it is at the same time the 
most talkative and inquisitive; T. crudelis is already dull of tongue, 
while all other species have forgotten how to ask the question. T. crudelis 
and T. sulphuratus replace our swallows and wag-tails, and with shrill 
note chase for part of the way every bird of prey that puts in an appear- 
ance. The Tanagra Sayaca Linn, and T. olivascens , the blue and brown 
“sacky” respectively of the Colonists, are just as plentiful as these 
m the city, while as soon as one gets into the country the husky screams 
of the Crotophaga Ani Linn, are to be heard: these are the “old witches” 
of the Colonists, that perch either in the shadows of the bushes or in 
and among the cattle and let themselves be carried about on their backs, 
like our starlings upon the sheep. The fact of their liking to stay 
close to a dead beast to pick insects, maggots, and larvae has probably 
given rise to the false impression that they live on carrion : the former 
together with the fruits of Psidium pyriferum and pods of Gay anus 
i adieus constitute their only food, for which reason they can be often 
greeted near fields containing the latter. The peculiarity that several 
females join together during the laying and breeding season to form a 
common nest the size of which depends upon the number of associated 
pi ospective mothers, wherein to lay and hatch their eggs in common, 
does licit imariabh present itself with Grotopha ya Ani, because I invari- 
ably found only from five to seven greenish white eggs in a nest: as I 
subsequently discovered, the’ peculiarly only takes place with C. major. 
The thick bushes running along the trenches are enlivened with the dainty 
Muscicapa bicolor Gin., or “Cotton-bird,” so named from its building 
its nest only from out of that material, and M. leucoeephala Term or “Par- 
son Bird” a term acquired from its black plumage and little white head; 
the trenches themselves are dotted with the Parra jacana Linn., Ardea 
sea pula ns 111., and A. nirea Lath., while the frequented and trodden 
