in ANIMAL LIFE IN THE TROPICAL FORESTS 309 



for any that can be said to be distinctive of the tropics as 

 compared with the temperate regions. Many peculiar groups 

 are tropical, but they are in almost every case confined to 

 limited portions of the tropical zones, or are rare in species or 

 individuals. Such are the lemurs in Africa, Madagascar, and 

 Southern Asia ; the tapirs of America and Malaya ; the rhino- 

 ceroses and elephants of Africa and Asia ; the cavies and the 

 sloths of America ; the scaly ant>eaters of Africa and Asia ; 

 but none of these are sufficiently numerous to come often 

 before the traveller so as to affect his general ideas of the 

 aspects of tropical life, and they are, therefore, out of place 

 in such a sketch of those aspects as we are here attempting 

 to lay before our readers. 



Summary of tlie Aspects of Animal Life in the Tropics 

 We will now briefly summarise the general aspects of 

 animal life as forming an ingredient in the scenery and natural 

 phenomena of the equatorial regions. Most prominent are 

 the butterflies, owing to their numbers, their size, and their 

 brilliant colours, as well as their peculiarities of form, and 

 the slow and majestic flight of many of them. In other 

 insects, the large size and frequency of protective colours 

 and markings are prominent features, together with the 

 inexhaustible profusion of the ants and other small insects. 

 Among birds the parrots stand forth as the pre-eminent 

 tropical group, as do the apes and monkeys among mammals, 

 the two groups having striking analogies in the prehensile 

 hand and the power of imitation. Of reptiles, the two most 

 prominent groups are the lizards and the frogs ; the snakes, 

 though equally abundant, being much less obtrusive. 



Animal life is, on the whole, far more abundant and more 

 varied within the tropics than in any other part of the globe, 

 and a great number of peculiar groups are found there which 

 never extend into temperate regions. Endless eccentricities 

 of form and extreme richness of colour are its most prominent 

 features, and these are manifested in the highest degree in 

 those equatorial lands where the vegetation acquires its 

 greatest beauty and its fullest development. The causes of 

 these essentially tropical features are not to be found in the 

 comparatively simple influence of solar light and heat, but 



