18 PARA. Chap. I. 



resting in the veranclali of our house during the heat of 

 midday, by watching the variegated green, brown, 

 and yellow ground-lizards. They would come nimbly 

 forward, and commence grubbing with their fore feet 

 and snouts around the roots of herbao-e, searchino- for 

 insect larvae. On the slightest alarm they would 

 scamper off ; their tails cocked up in the air as they 

 waddled awkwardly away, evidently an incumbrance to 

 them in their flight. 



Next to the birds and lizards, the insects of the 

 suburbs of Para deserve a few remarks. The sjDecies 

 obsei^ed in the weedy and open places, as already re- 

 marked, were generally different from those which dwell 

 in the shades of the forest. It is worthy of notice that 

 those species which have the widest distribution in 

 America, and which have the closest affinity to those of 

 the tropics of the old world, are such as occur in open 

 sunny places near towns. The general appearance of the 

 insects and birds belonging to such situations is very 

 similar to that of European species. This resemblance, 

 however, is, in many cases, one of analogy only ; that 

 is, the species are similar in size, form, and colours, 

 but belong to widely different genera. Thus, all the 

 small carnivorous beetles seen running along sandy 

 pathways, look precisely like the Amarse, those oval 

 coppery beetles which are seen in similar situations in 

 England. But they belong to quite another genus — 

 namely, Selenophorus, the genus Am ara being unknown 

 in Tropical America. In butterflies, again, we saw a 

 small species of Erycinidse flying about low shrubs in 

 grassy places, which was extremely similar in colours to 



