JUNGLE LIFE 75 



conditions settled down, and insects, reptiles, birds and 

 beasts again resumed their natural activities. So much for 

 what we might call the mechanics of observation. 



Argument such as the present is always strengthened 

 and reinforced by the inverse ratio of the area considered. 

 So I will take as an example — given more in detail elsewhere 

 in this volume — the area in whicli we actually carried on 

 our researches. This was a patch of jungle of about the 

 size of Central Park in Xew York City. During the first 

 week I made no attempt at careful observation, but walked 

 around and through the selected zone, mapping it and de- 

 ciding on its outlines. My lists of birds observed on these 

 days were small indeed. Could these meagre notes have 

 been seen by my pessimistic friends who had prophesied a 

 dearth of jungle life, their convictions would have been 

 strengthened. And yet, when we had settled down to care- 

 ful study and watching, our lists grew out of all proportions. 

 We M^ere not collecting. JMany and many a day I spent in 

 watching a certain group of birds without shooting one. 

 We made no concerted attempts at the sliooting of tree-top 

 birds in the hope of adding a new name to our list. We 

 collected only what we needed for material for definite prob- 

 lems, and yet hardly a day passed when we did not find one 

 or more species new to us. At the end of our stay we had 

 made observations on two hundred and eighty-one diff^erent 

 species. And on the very last day of our work — when I 

 had finished packing and took a last farewell tramp, I saw- 

 two birds which I could not identify with any which we had 

 seen or shot before. In this same area, quite incidentally, we 

 observed about fifty species of mammals, embracing all the 

 important forms of north-eastern South America, while with 

 Whitely's birds which he gathered in this same locality, our 

 neighborhood was proven to be the home of three hundred 

 and fifty-one different species. 



As to still more restricted tropical areas I must refer 

 to the week's census of a single tree and the examination of 



