410 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE. Chap. XX. 



Bats are very abundant, and I had succeeded in 

 making a fine collection of tliem. They sometimes 

 came by hundreds and spent the whole of the night 

 flying round a tree which bore fruits they liked, and 

 the noise made by their wings sounded strangely 

 amid the stillness which surrounded them. 



Squirrels are rather numerous, and there are a 

 good number of species. Birds of prey and snakes 

 are their great enemies. In ' Equatorial Africa ' I 

 described how I saw a snake charming a squirrel, 

 and made the little creature come to him. 



There are eight species of monkeys, but they are 

 not all found in every district. They live in troops, 

 but when old they live generally by themselves or in 

 pairs. Of all the Mammalian animals inhabiting 

 the forest the monkey tribe is the most numerous ; 

 but the poor monkey is surrounded by enemies, the 

 greatest being man, who sets traps everywhere to 

 catch him ; then he is continually hunted by the 

 negroes with guns or arrows ; the guanonien, an 

 eagle, is also his inveterate enemy. 



The guanonien is a most formidable eagle, and, in 

 spite of all my endeavours, during my former and 

 this last journey, I have been unable to kill one ; but 

 several times I have been startled in the forest by 

 the sudden cry of anguish of a monkey who had been 

 seized by this " leopard of the air," as the natives 

 often call it, and then saw the bird with its prey dis- 

 appear out of sight. 



One day, hunting through the thick jungle, I came 

 to a spot covered with more than one hundred skulls 

 of monkeys of different sizes. Some of these skulls 



