for example, as the mosquito and the wasp, the females are the only aggressors. The male mosquito cannot bite, nor the male wasp sting, nor the male Chigoe form its irritating nest.

There is now before me one of these female Chigoes, with the abdomen fully swollen and full of eggs. It was sent to me by a resident in the West Indies, who was kind enough to allow it to inhabit his toe until it was sufficiently developed, and then removed it and preserved it for me. The skin of the swollen abdomen is very tough, so that it can easily be turned out of the hollow which it has formed. The size of my specimen is as nearly as possible equal to that of an ordinary sweet pea. In some places the Chigoe is called Chicorine.

CINNAMON (Cinnamomum Zeylanicum).-Only the bark of the young shoots is used. Ceylon is the chief country of the cinnamon. It is allied to the common laurel.

CLOVE. The cloves of commerce are the unexpanded flowers of a plant, known scientifically as Caryophyllus aromaticus. It is one of the myrtle tribe. The name clove is a corruption of the French name clou, the dried flowers bearing some resemblance to a nail.

COCOA-NUT PALM (Cocos nucifera).-Essentially a sea-side tree, and apparently not a native of the West Indies, but imported, either by man or by the wind and waves. It grows freely in India and the South Sea Islands, as well as in the West Indies, and reaches a height of a hundred feet.

The nut grows in a very curious manner. When it has fallen, one of the three holes gives way to a shoot, which strikes out a root, piercing into the ground, while it still retains its connection by a sort of cord, with the nut from which it draws its nourishment, until it is strong enough to obtain the whole of its sustenance from the ground. See the fallen nuts in the foreground of the illustration.

It has a "cabbage" like that of the cabbage palm, and is sometimes cut down for the sake of obtaining this vegetable.

Toddy is simply the fermented juice of the tree; coir is made from the husk, which is also cut up into scrubbing-brushes for household use; and the "porcupine wood" of the cabinetmaker is obtained from the dense and heavy wood near the root.

The long groves of Cocoa palms are called cocals, and sometimes extend for several miles along the shore. The Cocoa palm should not be confounded with the cacao, of which chocolate and cocoa are made, and which is a totally different plant, belonging to the genus Theobroma.

COCK OF THE ROCK (Rupicola aurantia).-This fine bird is the largest of the Manakins, q.v., and on account of the beauty

of its plumage is in great request with bird stuffers. Unfortunately, the brilliant orange of its feathers is very fugitive, and a stuffed bird is sure to fade unless protected from the light.

I have before me a specimen of a stuffed Cock of the Rock which has been exposed to daylight for several years, and the colour of which has so completely faded, that the bird can

only be recognized by its shape, the feathers having changed from brilliant orange to a dull yellowish brown.

The following account of this bird is taken from Mr. C. B. Brown's work on Guiana :

"Cocks of the Rock were numerous in the surrounding thickets, where their sharp disagreeable cry was frequently

heard.

"They are so restless, jumping and flying from bough to bough, and tree to tree, that Paulie, who was trying to shoot them, started five, but only succeeded in obtaining one specimen. He found a dancing place of these birds in a thicket, the ground being beaten down quite smooth by their feet; and on visiting it early in the morning with Ben, the two together succeeded in shooting two cocks and a hen bird. They told me that there were numbers around the dancing place, and that the two cocks they shot were strutting about with their feathers distended, showing themselves off before the rest."

Only the adult males possess the rich orange plumage, the females and immature males being of a dull yellow-green, and having but a small crest. The bird, though the largest of the Manakins, is but a small one, being scarcely equal in size to a Tumbler pigeon.

COFFEE. It is rather remarkable that the two chief products of the West Indies, namely Coffee and Sugar, are both natives of the Old World, and have been acclimatized in the New.

Coffee, as its name imparts, Coffea Arabica, is indigenous to Northern Africa, and was imported into Europe as a curiosity. Not much more than a hundred and fifty years ago a single layer of two slips was taken from Holland to Martinique, and it throve so well that it furnished a supply for the whole of the West Indies.

There is a romantic story connected with its introduction. A Frenchman, named Desclieux, had charge of the plant. On the voyage the vessel fell in with a series of storms, and all on board were put on short allowance of water. The

heroic Frenchman divided his share of water with the Coffee

plant,

"And Martinico loads her ships

With produce from those dear-saved slips."

Even the

It belongs to the useful group of Cinchonaceæ. leaves possess many of the qualities which make the seeds so useful.

COPAL. See "Locust Tree."

CORAL SNAKE (Tortrix Scytale).-In some parts of the country this snake is made a pet, being twisted round the neck like a gold and black "torque." It is but a small snake, averaging twenty-six inches in length.

COTINGAS. These all belong to the group of the Ampelinæ, or Chatterers.

The Pompadour Cotinga (Cotinga pompadoura) is a singularly beautiful bird, its plumage being mostly of the beautiful hue which is known as pompadour, and which used to be very fashionable at the beginning of the present century. The feathers are splashed and streaked with white, and the wings are tipped with black. In size it rather surpasses our starling.

The Purple-throated Cotinga is known to science as Cotinga cayenna. For other remarkable Chatterers see "Bell bird" and "Cock of the Rock."

COTTON. The cotton which is used for thread and string, is procured from several species of Gossypium, one of which produces the cotton so largely used by ourselves. The natives always have some of these bushes planted near their houses, and cotton spinning goes on almost as interminably as knitting or crochet among English ladies.

The mode of spinning is that which is prevalent all over the world, and even in England has only lately been superseded by machinery. A wooden spindle is passed through a whorl of a heavy wood, bone, or sometimes stone, and the fibres attached to t. The spindle is then made to revolve, thus spinning the fibres into thread. In savage countries, the