A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



But it is not granted to the lower animals to learn under the 

 supervision of their parents. The secure and joyous time of childhood 

 is shared only by the birds and mammals. Other creatures, if they 

 survive to see the emergence of their brood, do no more than watch 

 over them and protect them. What the young are able to do they 

 do not learn ; their ability develops of itself. While a young fox-cub 

 does not yet know his enemies, every lizard, as soon as it creeps out 

 of the egg, avoids larger animals, while it seizes smaller creatures 

 and swallows them ; but no one has ever taught it to do so. 



One of the most fascinating chapters of the animal life in Brazil 

 is that relating to the parental instincts of the Frogs. We have 

 already seen that the frogs are abundantly represented in Brazil; 

 of the 150 species of Tree-frog — and this is the group which is 

 distinguished by the variety of means by which the brood is pro- 

 tected — no less than 75 are peculiar to the moist forests of Brazil. 



I shall never forget a frog-hunting expedition which I undertook 

 in company with Dr. Lutz, who knows more about frogs than 

 anyone in South America. 



It was the 7th of January. After a pleasant supper-party at the 

 doctor's house we set out on our expedition, accompanied by my 

 host's daughter — herself a naturalist — and the servant, the negro 

 Joaquim. The electric tramway took us to an outlying quarter of the 

 city, at the edge of which the hills rose against the sky. The night 

 was pitch dark, but we lit our lanterns and went our way, while 

 the whole landscape seemed to vibrate with the cries of the cicadas, 

 and here and there a screech-owl made itself heard. 



A heavy odour of earth and decaying vegetation rose from the 

 ground; the foliage of the bushes, and here and there the great 

 leaves of bananas, gleamed as the light of our lanterns fell on them. 

 Now we came to the hedge of a nursery-garden, and suddenly a 

 strange music sounded in our ears. It was as though hundreds of 

 hammers were violently and indefatigably striking an empty cask. 

 As we entered the garden the sound ceased. We flashed our lanterns 

 on the ground, and suddenly the great eyes of the Hammer-frog 

 glittered in the light, the white above the pupils gleaming like an 

 opal. These great batrachians, which the Brazilians call "Smiths" 

 or Ferreiros, and which belong to the family of Tree-frogs, have 

 brown bodies, and balls on their finger-tips, with which they cling 

 to the foliage of the trees as though by means of india-rubber suckers. 

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