

214 NOCTURNAL LIFE OP ANIMALS. 



effect of mirage; not a breath of air stirred the fine, dust-like sand. 

 The sun was in the zenith, and the flood of light which he poured 

 down upon the river, and which, from a slight rippling movement 

 of the waters, flashed sparkling back, rendered still more sensible 

 the red haze which veiled the distance. All the naked rocks and 

 boulders around were covered with a countless number of large, 

 thick-scaled iguanas, gecko-lizards, and variously spotted salaman- 

 ders. Motionless, with uplifted heads and open mouths, they 

 appeared to inhale the burning air with ecstasy. At such times 

 the larger animals seek shelter in the recesses of the forest, and 

 the birds hide themselves under the thick foliage of the trees, or in 

 the clefts of the rocks ; but if, in this apparent entire stillness of 

 nature, one listens for the faintest tones which an attentive ear can 

 seize, there is perceived an all-pervading rustling sound, a humming 

 and fluttering of insects close to the ground, and in the lower strata 

 of the atmosphere. Everything announces a world of organic 

 activity and life. In every bush, in the cracked bark of the trees, 

 in the earth undermined by hymenopterous insects, life stirs audi- 

 bly. It is, as it were, one of the many voices of Nature, heard 

 only by the sensitive and reverent ear of her true votaries. 



