XX INTRODUCTION 



The lizards and iguanas are very plentiful and 

 interesting, and the insects are just as numerous 

 and attentive as they were one hundred years 

 ago. A week after my return to New York I 

 happened to notice a small swelling on the side 

 of my foot and upon examination found that it 

 was a colony of chigoes that I had unwittingly 

 smuggled past the Customs Inspectors. I quickly 

 evicted them after Waterton's prescription and 

 was much surprised to find that there neither 

 was nor had been the slightest pain connected 

 with their occupation or eviction. The ants were 

 everywhere and tried to destroy everything. 

 The ticks and bete-rouge were annoying at times, 

 and the scorpions and centipedes were rather too 

 plentiful, but there were great numbers of beau- 

 tiful and interesting insects, splendid morphos, 

 heliconias, papilios and many other butterflies in 

 great variety and most gorgeous coloring: lovely 

 great brown moths and resplendent jeweled 

 beetles and dragonflies. Also many curious and 

 remarkable forms of that little-known family, 

 the leaf hoppers. The grasshoppers, locusts, 

 cicadas and mantises grow to a great size and are 

 most beautifully colored in greens, reds, yellows 

 and browns. 



The traveler in these immense forests may go 

 for days and see no animal life save a few birds 

 and insects, for the vegetation is so dense and 

 matted together with lianas, bushropes, and 

 orchid roots that the cover is perfect, and the 

 largest animals can conceal themselves almost 

 instantly. Even the great tapir, nearly as large 

 as a cow, can thread its way noiselessly through 



