XI 



NATURE AS AN ORGANISM 



IJRAZIL is a land of wonders, where birds fly like insects and 

 insects like birds. 



The Humming-birds, indeed (Plate 28, 2 to 5), which the 

 Brazilians prettily call Beijqflores — that is, "flower-kissers" — are 

 quite unlike other birds, if only by reason of their smallness ; there 

 are insects in Brazil which are larger. These enchanting little 

 creatures appear in a flash, hover before a flower with wings that 

 vibrate so rapidly that one can see them only as a shimmering 

 radiance, while one hears not a rustle, but a hum like that of the 

 propeller of a distant aeroplane. Suddenly, as by magic, the bird 

 has disappeared. Next moment, however, it is hovering in front of 

 another flower; it twists and turns by starts, still suspended in the 

 air, and suddenly it is gone. No other birds but only the hawk- 

 moths behave in such a fashion, and just as the latter uncoil a long 

 trunk, which they plunge into the corolla of a flower in order to 

 reach its nectaries, so the Humming-bird thrusts its long, curved 

 bill into the flowers. It is, of course, looking less for honey than for 

 the insects which are found in the depths of the flowers. Flowers 

 and Humming-birds, however, belong together just as do flowers 

 and insects, for the fertilization of various flowers is, as we shall see, 

 effected by Humming-birds. 



The Humming note of the almost incredibly rapid wing-beats of 

 the Humming-birds has its counterpart in the insect world. Bumble- 

 bees, carpenter-bees and wasps, magnificent forms of which are 

 found in Brazil, hum during their flight; so does the Splendid 

 Phanaeus, a great green dung-beetle with the shimmer of red on 

 its wing-covers ; and a yet louder hum is emitted by the Cicadas 

 when their glassy wings bear their heavy bodies through the air. 

 And the huge green grasshopper hums as it flies; an insect which 

 I was always encountering in the cashew-forest of Pernambuco, and 

 which really flies like a bird. 



The flight of the great Caligo butterfly resembles the flight of 

 certain birds — namely, the Goatsuckers. A bluish gleam flashes 

 amidst the stems of the darkening forest. Now it comes nearer, 

 flitting towards us on wings as large as a man's hand, on whose 

 under side we see great eyes, like those of an owl. 



183 



