150 TlMEHRI. 
letter from Mr. E. B. Tylor. "You asked once about 
the derivation of couvade. Answer, French (Provincial, 
south) from couver to hatch, as if the man hatched the 
young brood. At least, that is something near the way in 
which the word shaped itself. It is in fact the same 
word as our covey, French couve, a hatching or brood." 
Fascination. — In connection with a note in the pre- 
vious number of Timehri on ' fascination by snakes,' a 
correspondent sends the following : — 
A little sunbiid* &c, &c, which although it had been deprived of 
one eye seemed to make double use of the remaining one, softly and 
solemnly marched from end to end of the marble slab, and no sooner 
did a fly alight than up it went within striking distance. At times it 
made a hissing noise, but not always. Having quietly got its beak 
within an inch or so of the fly, it made an unerring dart and the poor 
fly was between its mandibles and swallowed ; in this way the pest of 
flies is kept down, and judging from the rate at which its work was 
carried on thousands of flies must form the daily meal of this nimble 
bird. That the sunbird has the means of fascinating the housefly, 
there cannot be a doubt ; for the tropical housefly is smartness itself, 
as every dweller in these latitudes can testify who has been tormented 
by the titillation of these insects and the all but impossibility of killing 
them. 
Meteorology of Guiana. — Since and except the very 
careful and elaborate " Monthly Tables of Daily Means 
of Meteorological Elements deduced from Observations 
taken at the Observatory, Georgetown, British Guiana, 
. . . . during eleven years, commencing January 1846, 
* Eurypyga helias. 
