180 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP, 
gloom, the effect of which is enhanced by the 
solemn silence. At first such a forest gives 
the impression of being more open than an 
English wood, but a few steps are sufficient 
to correct this error. There is a thick under- 
growth matted together by wiry creepers, and 
the intermediate space is traversed in all 
directions by lines and cords. 
The English traveller misses sadly the 
sweet songs of our birds, which are replaced 
by the hoarse chatter of parrots. Now and 
then a succession of cries even harsher and 
more discordant tell of a troop of monkeys 
passing across from tree to tree among the 
higher branches, or lower sounds indicate to 
a practised ear the neighbourhood of an ape, 
a sloth, or some other of the few mammals 
which inhabit the great forests. Occasionally . 
a large blue bee hums past, a brilliant butter- 
fly flashes across the path, or a humming-bird 
hangs in the air over a flower like, as St. 
Pierre says, an emerald set in coral, but 
“how weak it is to say that that exquisite 
little being, whirring and fluttering in the air, 
has a head of ruby, a throat of emerald, and 
