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large number of animals living on trees. Amongst the mammals, 

 the monkeys, sloths, porcupines, pouched rats and ant eaters, 

 which have prehensile tails, and claws, live entirely on trees ; 

 a small cat (Felis pardalis) and one or two squirrels can also be 

 classed among the arboreal animals, so that only a deer, a boar, 

 a few rodents (agouti and laps) and an armadillo are exclusively 

 confined to the ground and amongst these nearly half can be 

 considered amphibious. 



I cannot say what is the cause of the comparative want 

 of land animals, but it seems to me that the large tracts of 

 virgin forests and the want of any extensive plains are the cause 

 of this selection. The forests of the northern chain of hills 

 show more favourable conditions for larger animals, but being 

 steep only the deer, which can climb about them like a goat, 

 finds an existence there. The rest of the forests are so thick, 

 that in their shade no grass and very little undergrowth can 

 grow. Besides the ground is often swampy and therefore only 

 suited for those animals that are half amphibious. In conse- 

 quence of this the animals seek their food on the crowns of the 

 trees ; the vegetable eaters are fructivorous and the carnivorous 

 ones feed on birds, reptiles and insects. Of the mammals living 

 on the ground the deer is the only one that eats grass ; the rest 

 live principally on roots. 



As few inferior animals live in the woods on the damp 

 ground, we also find amongst the reptiles many which are mostly 

 carnivorous, living on the trees. A few species of lizards and a 

 tortoise are terrestrial. Amongst the Amphibia most of the 

 frogs live on the trees. 



From the above remarks it can be seen that not much is to 

 be found in the forest. Even the invertebrate animals which 

 live in rotting trunks of trees are mostly found in the cocoa 

 estates ; it is not to be understood that these animals prefer the 

 cocoa estates, but the number of hiding places they have in the 

 forests among the fallen leaves and in the dead branches, cause them 

 to distribute themselves more. Besides the Erythrina trees that are 



