208 SANTAREM. Cuap. VIII. 
Blondii), of a brown colour with yellowish lines along its stout legs— 
which is very common here, inhabiting broad tubular galleries smoothly 
lined with silken web—may be then caught on the watch at the mouth 
of its burrow. It is only seen at night, and I think does not wander 
far from its den ; the gallery is about two inches in diameter, and runs 
in a slanting direction, about two feet from the surface of the soil. As 
soon as it is night, swarms of goatsuckers suddenly make their appear- 
ance, wheeling about in a noiseless, ghostly manner, in chase of night- 
flying insects. They sometimes descend and settle on a low branch, 
or even on the pathway close to where one is walking, and then 
squatting down on their heels are difficult to distinguish from the 
surrounding soil. One kind (Hydropsalis psalidurus?) has a long 
forked tail. Inthe daytime they are concealed in the wooded ilhas, 
where I very often saw them crouched and sleeping on the ground in 
the dense shade. They make no nest, but lay their eggs on the bare 
ground. Their breeding time is in the rainy season, and fresh eggs are 
found from December to June. Birds have not one uniform time for 
nidification here, as in temperate latitudes. Gulls and plovers lay in 
September, when the sandbanks are exposed in mid-river in the dry 
season. Later in the evening, the singular notes of the goatsuckers are 
heard, one species crying, Quao, Quao, another Chuck-co-co-cao ; and 
these are repeated at intervals far into the night in the most monotonous 
manner. A great number of toads are seen on the bare sandy pathways 
soon after sunset. One of them was quite a colossus, about seven 
inches in length and three in height. This big fellow would never 
move out of the way until we were close to him. If we jerked him out 
of the path with a stick, he would slowly recover himself, and then turn 
round to have a good impudent stare. I have counted as many as 
thirty of these monsters within a distance of half a mile. 
The surface of the campos is disfigured in all directions by earthy 
mounds and conical hillocks, the work of many different species of 
white ants. Some of these structures are five feet high, and formed of 
particles of earth worked into a material as hard as stone; others are 
smaller, and constructed ina looser manner. The ground is everywhere 
streaked with the narrow covered galleries which are built up by the 
insects of grains of earth different in colour from the surrounding soil, 
to protect themselves whilst conveying materials wherewith to build 
their cities—for such the tumuli may be considered—or carrying their 
young from one hillock to another. The same covered ways are spread 
over all the dead timber, and about the decaying roots of herbage, 
which serve as food to the white ants. An examination of these tubular 
passages or arcades in any part of the district, or a peep into one of the 
tumuli, reveals always a throng of eager, busy creatures. I became 
very much interested in these insects while staying at Santarem, where 
many circumstances favoured the study of their habits, and examined 
several hundred colonies in endeavouring to clear up obscure points in 
their natural history. Very little, up to that date, had been recorded 
of the constitution and economy of their communities, owing doubtless 
to their not being found in northern and central Europe, and therefore 
