Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/508

* HAIRSTBEAK. 456 HAITI. HAIRSTREAK. A butterfly of the family LyeaniJip, and commonly one of the genus The- cla. The hairstreaks may be distinguished from the "coppers' and 'blues' of the same family by the fact that the radius of the fore wing is only three-branched. They are brown, with very fine stripes on the lower surface of the wing, hence the common name. A few species are blue or green. Some of the stigmata are filled with scent- scales, known as 'andriconia.' There are fifty species of hairstreaks in North America. The largest species {Thccia halesus), found in the southeastern part of the United States, expands two inches. The male is bright blue and black ; the female has more black than the male. The commonest species in New England is Thecla calanus, a small, dark brown form. The larvie of Uie more common of the hairstreaks feed on the oak; others feed upon wild plum, the hop-plant, Astragalus, Hosackia, and other plants, and some are especially fond of the unopened flowers. HAIRTAIL (so called from the attenuated tail). A fish of the spiny-rayed family Tricliiu- ridoe, characterized by the compressed and elon- gated body, the posterior end of which gradually tapers into a fine filament. The dorsal fin is long and low, and composed of spines and rays almost hidden in the skin. There are no caudal or ven- tral fins and the skin bears no scales. They are voracious fishes of the high seas, principally con- fined to the tropics and growing to a considerable length. Compare Cutlass-Fish ; Tiireadfish. HAIRWORM. Any of the long, thread-like nematode worms of the parasitic order Gordi- oidea. (See Gordius. ) In these nematodes the body-cavity is lined by a distinct epithelium ; there is a simple large ventral nerve-trunk, and the reproductive organs are arranged nietameri- cally and are separate from the gonoducts. The group includes a small number of species, which are parasitic in locusts and other insects in the asexual, but free and mobile in the se.xual stage. They inhabit moist situations, are sometimes found on the leaves of plants, but more fre- quently in stagnant pools, and in mud, through which they work their way with great ease. They often twist themselves into complex knots, whence their name Gordius, from the celebrated Gordian knot, and many of them are sometimes found thus twisted together: but they are also often to be found extended in the water. The eggs are laid in long chains in the water, and the young which hatch from them swim about until they reach some aquatic larvie into which they bore and encyst. When this insect is eaten by some minnow or other small fish the cyst is dis- solved and the young Gordius lives parasitically in the intestine of its new host, until it reaches sexual maturity, when it bores its way out of the cyst, passes into the intestinal cavity of the fish, and from thence is carried out with the faeces into the water. When fully grown a large hairworm may be nearly three feet long. One popular name is 'hair-eel'; and a notion still prevails even among educated people that it is nothing else than a horsehair, which has some- how acquired life by long immersion in water, and which is destined in time to become an eel, or, as some say, a snake. They are often seen in fresh-water pools or horse-troughs, whence they are supposed by the ignorant to be transformed horsehairs. A popular notion prevails in Swe- den that the bite of the Gordius causes whitlow. Most hairworms in their last stage live in ground-beetles and locusts, turning in the intes- tines of their host, and finally passing out of the anus. Consult Villot, "Alonographie des Dragon- neaux," in Archives de zoblogie experimeiitale, vol. iii. (Paris, 1874). HAITI, ha'te, Fr. pron. a'e'te', also called Santo Dosiingo, or Hispaniola. One of the four islands of the Greater Antilles, the sec- ond in area and population, and the only island of the West Indies that is politically independent. The name of the island requires special comment because the usage is not uni- form. Haiti is the name given to it by the Caribs, who inhabited it, the word signifying 'mountainous' or 'high land.' When Columbus discovered Haiti he renamed it 'Hispauola' (His- paniola); colonized by the Spaniards the name of Santo Domingo was given to its most im- portant port, and in the course of time the Eng- lish, French, and even the Spaniards came to know the whole island by the name of its capi- tal and chief settlement. Early in the nineteenth century, at tlie suggesiicK" of some leading geogv raphers, the original name Haiti came again into use, and is now commonly employed to designate (1) the whole island, and (2) the independent republic which occupies the western four-elev- enths of the island's area. The name Santo Domingo (q.v. ) is now properly applied only to the republic occupying the eastern seven-elevenths of the island (officially, Republica Dominicana), or the Dominican Republic. Situated between Port., Rico and Cuba, the island extends from latitude 17° 37' to 20° N. and from longitude 68° 20' to 74° 28' W. (Map: West Indies, L 5 ) . It is about 400 miles long and varies in width from 24 to 16,5 miles. Haiti has the highest mountains of the West Indies. The island is covered with forested mountain chains and isolated mountain masses, inter- s)iersed with fertile valleys. The highest point of the island, Lonia Tina, rises to over 10.000 feet, and the average altitude of the Sierra del Cibao is about 7000 feet. The coasts are mostly elevated and greatly indented, forming numerous natural harbors. The rivers, although numerous, are naturally short and swift, most of them hav- ing their sources in the mountains. A few of them are navigable for small boats : their mouths are generally obstructed. There are several large lakes in the western part of the island, one of them, Enriquillo, being evidently connected with the Caribbean Sea, judging from the specific grav- ity of its water and its tides. The principal for- mations are sandstones and schists, the crs'stal- line zone being foiuid chiefly in the centre of the island. Tertiary deposits are found in some of the mountain chains. The minerals are supposed to be abundant, and some gold is found in the streams. The climate is hot and heavy in the low-lying parts of the island (as at Port-au- Prince), the temperature during June, July, and August frequently rising to about 95°, but rare- ly above this. The mean annual tempei'ature in the Port of San Domingo is a little cooler than in Port-au-Prince. In the mountains the climate is much cooler, the average for the summer months 6eing about 77°. There are two rainy and two drv seasons, differing in their duration in differ-