BIUDS. 
15 
1848.] 
or bird-catcliing spiders, which are here improperly 
called “ tarantulas,” and are said to be very venomous. 
We found one which had a nest on a silk cotton- tree, 
formed like the web of some of our house-spiders, as a 
place of concealment, but of a very strong texture, almost 
like silk. Other species live in holes in the ground. 
Beetles and flies were generally very scarce, and, with 
few exceptions, of small size, but bees and wasps were 
abundant, and many of them very large and handsome. 
Mosquitoes, in the low parts of the city and on ship- 
board, are very annoying, but on the higher grounds and 
in the suburbs there are none. The moqueen, a small 
red tick, scarcely visible, the “ bete rouge” of Cayenne, 
abounds in the grass, and, getting on the legs, is very 
imtating ; but these are trifles which one soon gets used 
to, and in fact would hardly think oneself in the tropics 
without them. 
Of birds we at first saw but few, and those not very 
remarkable ones. The only brilliant-coloured bird com- 
mon about the city is the yellow troupial {Cassicus icte- 
ronotus), which builds its nests in colonies, suspended 
from the ends of the branches of trees. A tree is some- 
times covered with their long purse-like nests, and the 
brilliant black and yellow birds flying in and out have 
a pretty effect. This bird has a variety of loud clear 
notes, and has an extraordinary power of imitating the 
song of other birds, so as to render it worthy of the title 
of the South American mocking-bird. Besides this, the 
common silver-beak tanager {BhampJiopis jacapa), some 
pale blue tanager s, called here '' Say is,” and the yellow- 
breasted tyrant flycatchers, are the only conspicuous 
