206 Naturalist at Large 



passes the pageant of sounds, if one may use such a simile, 

 is re-enacted and you have the fun of listening all over 

 again. 



Nothing ever impressed me more than when Johnny Ses- 

 sums, who was General Preston Brown's flying aide, once 

 told me that 5000 feet over the island he could see what 

 looked like blue sparks snapping against a background of 

 green velvet. I knew at once that it was the sun striking 

 the wings of the giant Morpho butterflies, the upper sur- 

 face of whose wings is a solid sheet of metallic azure. This 

 sight I have never seen, though my daughter Mary B. and 

 my wife have flown with him high enough to see far out 

 into both oceans. But they do not get seasick as I do. 



There are twenty-five miles of shore Hne to our six 

 square miles of island, which shows that it is deeply em- 

 bayed. The island supports 1 800 species of flowering plants, 

 about 70 species of mammals, and something over 275 spe- 

 cies of birds. This is the equivalent of what might be seen 

 in Massachusetts in a year of observation of resident and 

 migrant birds together, and Massachusetts is 1366 times 

 larger than Barro Colorado Island. But these figures help 

 no impression of the beauty of the place. 



Probably few spots in the world have provided more 

 intellectual thrills or satisfied more intellectual curiosity 

 than has Barro Colorado Island. Every naturalist, be he 

 high-school teacher or independent investigator or college 

 professor of biology, craves a chance to see a tropical rain 

 forest, if only for once in his life; and many who have had 

 their first chance on Barro Colorado Island have returned 

 there again and again. 



