ANIMAL KINGDOM. 
95 
they are by the better class kept and fed for a few days. 
Poor people, who eat them as soon as they get them, are 
sometimes injured by them. 
Arachnida spiders are numerous, and some of them 
useful in destroying cockroaches and beetles. The crap- 
spider {jlranea avicularia) is venomous ; it bites severely, 
swelling of the part, and fever for about twenty-four- 
hours being 'the result. 
There arc two species of scorpions, known as the grey 
and the black ; they are both venomous, yet very seldom 
does death follow their sting. A few cases, however, have 
been knoAvn of infants having died from exhaustion 
occasioned by the violent retching produced by the sting 
of scorpions, and even adults iiave been severely affected 
and weakened. The toe is often bitten, for the people 
generally are barefoot ; and when the toe is bitten by 
a scorpion, or snake, or centipede, a piece of string is- 
tightly tied round it to prevent the poisoned blood from 
circulatinti. 
Insecta. — Trinidad is alive with insects. Bete-rouge are 
very troublesome to horses and other animals, thousands 
collecting on their heads, and producing much itching. 
Ticks infest the cattle and mules turned into the pasture. 
An enemy to the tick, and a friend to the aiiimal, is 
provided in the merle corbeau {Crota'pliagi ani), whiclt. 
bird is ever found flitting about the heads of the animals 
as they graze to feast on the ticks. The best remedy, 
liowever, against these insect-pests is the carajia oil. 
They die after it has been applied a few times to the 
parts of the animal where they cling. Chigoes and 
mosquitos are very teazing, to new comers especially. 
The mosquitos attack the hands, and feet, and face, that 
is to say, the exposed parts, the feet not being sufficiently 
protected by stockings. The virus of this little gnat 
is so strong that it raises a lump, and produces such in- 
flammation and irritation that you cannot refrain from 
scratching, till perhaps a wound is the result. The 
natives and those long- resident in the country are l)itten. 
