274 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



bed, looking like a growth of seedlings. I have not observed the 

 same peculiarity in any other Cinchona. 



I proceed now to give some account of the other indigenous 

 inhabitants of the Red Bark woods, animal and vegetable. 



The Andine Bear, chiefly inhabiting the middle wooded 

 region, descends to the lower limit of the Red Bark. On the 

 eastern side of the Andes it rarely goes as low as 3000 feet. 



The Jaguar (Fclis onca\ chiefly inhabiting the plain, does not 

 yet seem to have climbed as high as Limon, but at Tarapoto, in 

 the Andes of Maynas, it was abundant up to more than 3000 feet 

 elevation. The Puma or Leon (Felis concolor) exists not only in 

 the plain but throughout the wooded slopes of the Andes ; it is 

 only too abundant in the roots of the Cordillera, and I have seen 

 its footsteps on recent snow at a height of 13,000 feet on the high 

 mountains to the eastward of Riobamba. "Puma" is the Indian 

 generic name for every sort of tiger, but the Spanish colonists 

 limit it to the red tiger, and call the spotted jaguar "tigre." Bears 

 never troubled our hut, but we had two nocturnal visits from the 

 puma. On one of these occasions the puma seized and was carry- 

 ing off a little dog, but a very large and fine black dog sprang on 

 the puma and forced him to let go his hold. . . . The screams 

 of an animal seized by a tiger are about the most doleful sounds 

 one ever hears in the forest, and after being once heard their 

 cause can never be mistaken. 



The Wild Pig (Peccary) frequently ascends to Limon, where 

 there are also two or three smaller pachyderms. 



Two sorts of Monkeys are common, one of them almost as 

 noisy as the howling monkey, but of a different genus. I do not 

 know of any monkey which ascends to the temperate region of 

 the Andes. 



A pretty red-headed Parrot, so small that it might be taken for 

 a paroquet, arrived in immense flocks about the end of July and 

 took up its summer residence in the Red Bark woods. The same 

 species abounds in the valley of Alausi, where it makes sad havoc 

 of the maize crops, and ascends by day to 8500 feet, but always 

 descends to Puma-cocha to roost. Along with the parrots came 

 Toucans of two species. 



Snakes are very frequent, and some of them venomous. 

 Limon seems to be the highest point to which the Equis ascends, 

 a large and deadly snake which is a great pest in the plains of 

 Guayaquil ; it takes its name from being marked with crosses (like 

 the letter "x") all along the back. 



Butterflies I have rarely seen in greater number, and they 

 include at least four species of those large blue butterflies 

 (probably species of Morpho) which, on the eastern side, are 

 seldom seen above the hot region. Cockroaches, too, ascend 



