366 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 53 



Only a few examples of the interesting adaptation found in this 

 ti'opical forest can be given here. Barro Colorado is a place that 

 must be experienced to be fully appreciated. Pictures even in natural 

 color can only give a poor notion of the curiously adapted forms that 

 live in a tropical forest. They are but poor sketches and representa- 

 tions of the great number of interdependencies that make up biotic 

 communities. 



There are, of course, some annoyances and real dangers as one walks 

 over the trails. Personally, I regard the constantly high humidity as 

 the greatest annoyance. After only moderate exercise one becomes 

 entirely wet with perspiration even in the dry season. It causes one's 

 glasses to fog over at most inopportune moments. It causes fungus 

 to grow on clothes, shoes, camera cases, and in camera lenses. It causes 

 films to stick in even the best cameras. Some people, until they learn 

 to deal with them, find the great number of chiggers and ticks a never 

 ending source of trouble. Proper dress for the trails and proper bath- 

 ing can, however, usually reduce these to an insignificant minimum. 

 The dangerous bushmaster has never been seen on the island, although 

 it is occasionally found on the mainland. The poisonous reptiles 

 which may be seen along the trails are very few although I photo- 

 graphed a fer- de-lance and a coral snake on a trail on the same day. 

 A bite from either would be grave disaster indeed. There are very 

 few mosquitoes, no malaria, no houseflies. 



The forest closes in on both sides and behind the laboratory. One 

 does not see far into or through these woods ; they are too dense. Only 

 in front can a person look away across Gatun Lake, and there within a 

 mile of the laboratory see the great ships of the world move silently 

 along the Panama Canal. They are the only reminders of an outside 

 civilization for on the island there are no television sets, no radios, no 

 telephones, no cars, no newspapers, no dogs to bark, no cats to meow. 

 There are only the native wild sounds of the forest, which, taken alone, 

 may seem loud and raucous but which somehow blend with the whole 

 to make something pleasing and soothing to the nervous system of 

 civilized man. 



Each evening about sundown the big chestnut-mandibled toucans 

 mount the top branches of the tallest trees and with much bowing and 

 waving of their enormous beaks break the solitude with their loud 

 squawks and yippings. One does not mind this, however, because he 

 has learned that the next number on the program will be the long, 

 wailing, flutelike notes of the great tinamou which serve as vespers 

 every evening on Barro Colorado. AVlien the tinamou has sung his 

 song the nocturnal chorus of the insects and amphibians has already 

 begun. Many bats are darting about, and then the mellow hoots of a 

 spectacled owl greet the night from the dark forest. There should be 

 more Barro Colorados. 



