THE ANIMAL WORLD OF BRAZIL 



The great forests of the Amazon basin have given the monkeys a 

 magnificent home. Here they have evolved in the greatest variety; 

 here the great black monkey of Brazil, the Goata, can swing himself 

 in looping curves from bough to bough ; in him the thumb, unsuited 

 to such a mode of progression, has disappeared. The American 

 monkeys have developed the tail into a fifth limb. They can suspend 

 themselves by it, and use it for grasping when they leap from bough 

 to bough. They even feel with their tails, grasping and examining their 

 food ; for on the under side of the tip is a large bare tactile area. 



Other classes of animals have evolved in South America in a 

 special direction. Among the birds I may mention the Inhambiis, 

 which represent the partridge family, but which must, by reason of 

 their internal structure, be reckoned among the most primitive of 

 birds. The handsome black Hokkos or Muturus, with the bill 

 adorned by a red or yellow tubercle, and the Jaciis, with their red 

 wattles, correspond to our grouse. A very singular bird is the 

 Hoatzin of the Amazon basin. The nestlings run about on all fours 

 like lizards, and their wings are provided with claws, the inmost of 

 which can be opposed to the others like a thumb, and these little 

 creatures swim, and even dive, using their wings as flippers, like the 

 penguins of the Antarctic. 



In Brazil the Macaws or Araras are the finest of all the repre- 

 sentatives of the parrot family ; and it is only in South America that 

 we find the equally resplendent Toucan with its gigantic beak, as 

 to whose purpose we are still in the dark. Among other South 

 American birds I must mention the splendid blue Gotingas or 

 Anambes, the Tyrants, the Arapagus, and the Humming-birds or 

 Golibris. 



I shall speak later on of the reptiles and batrachians, but I may 

 mention here that the peculiarly individual nature of animal evolu- 

 tion in South America is revealed by the fact that of 90 species of 

 lizard, 78 are confined to this continent, and of 94 species of snake 69. 

 Of the 48 South American batrachians 41 are exclusively South 

 American. It is in Brazil that the evolution of the batrachians has 

 been most prolific and various. Goming to the fresh- water fish, we 

 find that one particular family has filled all the places which in 

 Europe are filled by a variety of groups — such as carp, roach, trout, 

 pike, etc. These are the Gharacinidae. To this family belongs the 

 terror of the Amazon and other Brazilian rivers, the Piranha. With 



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