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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



A Termite's Nest in a Thee. Note the covered roadway passing down the 

 tree trunk which bears the nest. The figure at the right shows the covered roadways 

 of termites on a tree trunk. 



tion makes them difficult to see. To secure them one must attend to 

 little else. Our interests were not in big game, but we were well repaid 

 with smaller fry — the forest filled our eyes, and notebooks, and photo- 

 graphic films to overflowing — yet never to satiety. There was always 

 something new and interesting. 



The forest swarmed with lizards, such as the little anoles and geckos, 

 which crouched motionless or scampered swiftly after fleeing insects. 

 Snakes lurked among the fallen leaves or climbed among the trees — 

 gaudy coral snakes with their cross bands of red and yellow, the vicious 

 fer-de-lance or bushmaster (called "Echo" by the Colombians), big, 

 but harmless, gopher snakes. Sometimes we met a "Bejuca" (vine 

 snake) — the most curious of them all — never half an inch in diameter 

 and attaining a length of three or four feet. But snakes were not easy to 

 find. We rarely got more than two or three in a day, sometimes one, 

 often none. Scorpions, tarantulas and other spiders abounded through- 

 out the forest. Big land snails crawled on the trees or over the ground. 

 Bright-colored butterflies fluttered in flocks through the open spaces. 

 Probably the most typical forest vertebrates were the little tree frogs, 

 which were abundant and various, and whose shrill piping was often the 

 only sound to break the deep silence. 



At night we took our jack-light (an acetylene lamp mounted on the 

 front of a hat or carried in the hand) and sought nocturnal animals. 

 On these excursions Bufo marinus, " the giant among toads," was always 

 encountered. Another curious toad, a Ceratophr>/s, was dubbed the 

 " snapdragon " by Dr. Buthven on account of its fierce behavior. It 

 would snap at us and grasp the end of a stick in its mouth, hanging on 

 firmly while it was swung about in the air. Goatsuckers and bats often 

 came right up to the light and flew about over our heads. Snakes were 



