182 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP, 
so absolutely silent and still before, break at 
once into noise and movement. Flocks of 
toucans flutter and scream on the tops of the 
highest forest trees hopelessly out of shot, the 
ear is pierced by the strange wild screeches of 
a little band of macaws which fly past you 
like the wrapped-up ghosts of the birds on 
some gaudy old brocade.” ? 
Mr. Darwin tells us that nothing can be 
better than the description of tropical forests 
given by Bates. 
“The leafy crowns of the trees, scarcely 
two of which could be seen together of the 
same kind, were now far away above us, in 
another world as it were. We could only see 
at times, where there was a break above, the 
tracery of the foliage against the clear blue 
sky. Sometimes the leaves were palmate, or 
of the shape of large outstretched hands; at 
others finely cut or feathery like the leaves of 
Mimosee. Below, the tree trunks were every- 
where linked together by sipos; the woody 
flexible stems of climbing and creeping trees, 
whose foliage is far away above, mingled with 
1 Thomson, Voyage of the Challenger. 
