A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



to run away. I looked for it in vain, and giving up the search, sat 

 down at my table in order to work by lampUght, for it was evening. 

 Scarcely had I begun to write when I suddenly saw the little creature 

 sitting on the table, staring at the light with its great golden eyes. 



As soon as it grew dark one heard, all over the monastery, a dull 

 clucking sound ; it seemed to come from the depths of a cellar, but 

 as a matter of fact it was the voice of the Giant Toad, Bufo maximus, 

 a huge batrachian almost as long as one's forearm, with handsome 

 black or green markings on its back. Once, when I was bathing in 

 a tree-shaded woodland brook, one of these creatures hopped into 

 the water beside me. Despite all my love for animals, this proximity 

 was too much for me, and I left the brook to the "Sapo." At one 

 season of the year these huge toads may be seen hopping all over 

 the streets, but I am glad to say that the Brazilians do not persecute 

 this useful creature. When in danger this toad assumes a strange, 

 intimidating attitude, with its head lowered and its body laterally 

 dilated. A smaller species is found in all the ponds and lakes of 

 Pernambuco in the month of March, when it creates such a din that 

 one has to shout in order to make oneself understood. This frog has a 

 trilling note, continued for several seconds ; it sounds like the deafen- 

 ing rattle of an overloaded gear-wheel. As soon as one begins to 

 trill another joins in ; puffing out their laryngeal sacs, the toads hop 

 splashing to and fro, and the pond seems to have been transformed 

 into a true witches' cauldron. 



And this whole concert, from the voices of the birds to those of the 

 frogs and insects, is the work of the male sex ! Difficult though it 

 may be to realize, since in our human world we are accustomed 

 to the contrary, we must admit that the glories of Nature, so far as 

 they are contributed by the animal species, are due to the male 

 sex. In certain families of butterffies the males alone are perfumed, 

 and they have even special brushes on their wings or bodies which 

 scatter the liquid secretion of their scent-glands into the air; it is 

 the males only that sing, quack and chirp; and as we see from 

 the example of the cock, the peacock, the Bird of Paradise and 

 other birds, even chromatic splendour is largely reserved for the 

 male sex. 



Of the reason for this partial distribution I have already spoken : 

 we know that the female sex has no reason to complain of such 

 injustice, but should rather be proud of the fact that her safety is 

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