vi PREFACE. 



a considerable length of time any one will be delegated to, or will 

 impose upon himself, the task of collecting either in Zoology or Botany 

 amongst the highest zones of the Andes. For this reason, as well as 

 for the others which have been given elsewhere, it seemed of more 

 importance and utility to give such moments as could be spared from 

 our other work to research in the higher and highest zones than to 

 attempt to investigate the lower regions. 



We accordingly pushed rapidly across the lower country both in 

 going to and returning from the interior ; ^ and only acquired, whilst 

 passing through it, such objects as came readily to hand. In respect 

 to the interior, it should be noted (1) that the exigencies of travel 

 often caused us to traverse considerable stretches of country without 

 attempting to collect at all ; (2) that, at such places as we stopped at, 

 our researches never even approached an exhaustive character ; and (3) 

 that the more minute species were rejected, o^Wng to the known diffi- 

 culty of inducing specialists to undertake their examination. Bearing 

 these various points in mind, it appears to me improbable that in the 

 interior (say, in the areas more elevated than 8000 feet) we obtained 

 as much as one-tenth of the number of species which might have been 

 collected by a person who could have given his whole time and atten- 

 tion to zoological research. 



Amongst the Insects collected from the level of the sea up to 8000 

 feet, 16 per cent are new to science. One hundred and sixty species 

 were obtained from 8000 feet and upwards, and of these exactly 

 60 per cent were previously unknown ; and at the greatest heights 

 (15-16,000 feet) the whole are new. The following table exhibits 



^ In .speaking of tlie "interior," it is to be miclerstood that I refer to tracts of 

 country seldom less elevated than 8500 feet. The neighbourhood of the town of 

 Ibarra (7300 feet), and the bottom of the great ravine of Guallabamba (6472 feet), 

 were the only localities we visited in the interior which ^^■ere at a lower level. Dur- 

 ing the 212 days we passed in the interior, there were only four ujion whicli we were 

 at a lower elevation than 6000 feet. 



It has not been considered necessary to place the word ' Ecuador ' after the 

 habitats which are quoted throughout this volume ; but it should be understood 

 that the whole of the localities which are mentioned are situated in tliat country. 



