Ill 



ANIMAL LIFE IN THE TROPICAL FORESTS 



Difficulties of the Subject General Aspect of the Animal Life of Equatorial 

 Forests Diurnal Lepidoptera or Butterflies Peculiar Habits of Tro- 

 pical Butterflies Ants, Wasps, and Bees Ants Special Relations 

 between Ants and Vegetation Wasps and Bees Orthoptera and 

 other Insects Beetles Wingless Insects General Observations on 

 Tropical Insects Birds : Parrots Pigeons Picarise Cuckoos Tro- 

 gons, Barbets, Toucans, and Hornbills Passeres Reptiles and 

 Amphibia : Lizards Snakes Frogs and Toads Mammalia : 

 Monkeys Bats Summary of the Aspects of Animal Life in the 

 Tropics. 



THE attempt to give some account of the general aspects of 

 animal life in the equatorial zone presents far greater diffi- 

 culties than in the case of plants. On the one hand, animals 

 rarely play any important part in scenery, and their entire 

 absence may pass quite unnoticed ; while the abundance, 

 variety, and character of the vegetation are among those 

 essential features that attract every eye. On the other hand, 

 so many of the more important and characteristic types of 

 animal life are restricted to one only out of the three great 

 divisions of equatorial land, that they can hardly be claimed 

 as characteristically tropical ; while the more extensive zoolog- 

 ical groups which have a wide range in the tropics and do 

 not equally abound in the temperate zones, are few in number, 

 and often include such a diversity of forms, structures, and 

 habits as to render any typical characterisation of them 

 impossible. We must then, in the first place, suppose that 

 our traveller is on the look-out for all signs of animal life ; 

 and that, possessing a general acquaintance as an out-door 

 observer with the animals of our own country, he carefully 



