Chap. Y. BEGINNING OF WET SEASON. 205 



the great section of mammals to which the Pachyder- 

 mata belong had its origin on that part of the earth's 

 surface where South America now stands ? 



On the 16th of January the dry season came abruptly 

 to an end. The sea breezes, which had been increasing 

 in force for some days, suddenly ceased, and the atmo- 

 sphere became misty ; at length heavy clouds collected 

 where a uniform blue sky had for many weeks pre- 

 vailed, and down came a succession of heavy showers, 

 the first of which lasted a whole day and night. This 

 seemed to give a new stimulus to animal life. On 

 the first night there was a tremendous uproar — tree- 

 frogs, crickets, goat-suckers, and owls, all joining to 

 perform a deafening concert. One kind of goat-sucker 

 kept repeating at intervals throughout the night 

 a phrase similar to the Portuguese words, " Joao 

 corta pao," "John, cut wood;" a phrase which forms 

 the Brazilian name of the bird. An owl in one of 

 the Genij^apa trees muttered now and then a suc- 

 cession of syllables resembling the word " Murucu- 

 tutu." Sometimes the croaking and hooting of frogs 

 and toads were so loud that we could not hear one 

 another's voices within doors. Swarms of dragon-flies 

 appeared in the daytime about the pools of water 

 created by the rain, and ants and termites came forth 

 in the winged state in vast numbers. I noticed that 

 the winged termites, or white ants, which came by 

 hundreds to the lamps at night, when alighting on the 

 table, often jerked off their wings by a voluntary move- 

 ment. On examination I found that the wings were 



