PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 13? 



host, and eat up everything but what is then the 

 membraneous covering of a pupa. 



Now we come to a further aspect of this interde- 

 pendence. Hawks soar overhead, and hearing the 

 loud chatter of parrots and other birds, now and 

 again pounce down and drive them to hide in the 

 densest part of the canopy of foliage. But, even 

 here they are met by a new misfortune, for snakes 

 have climbed from below to get their share of the 

 good things, and are ready to pounce upon them 

 as they flutter away from the hawk. Down below, 

 in the lower branches or on the ground, the jaguar, 

 puma, or ocelot, lies in wait, and he also lives 

 because that cloud of yellow butterflies gambolled 

 about the flowers a few months ago. 



Besides all these the seeds and fruit of forest 

 trees go to feed the shoals of fish which make their 

 way from the great rivers, and swim about every- 

 where during the flood. On account of their 

 presence the great jabiru, or giant stork, frequents 

 the inundated tracts, and vies with the alligator 

 and the Indian for a share of the finny spoil. 



We might go on further and tell of the weevils 

 which bore into the fruit as it lies on the ground, of 

 the cockroaches and great beetle larvae with their 

 parasites, and of the ants and scorpions which hunt 

 these, and of the thousand animaculae which also 



