JUN(,LK LIFE 75 



conditions settled down, and insects, reptiles, hirds and 

 beasts ayain resumed their natural activities. So much for 

 what wv mi<^ht call the mecluim'cs of ol)servati()n. 



Argument sneh as the present is alwavii strengthened 

 and reinforced by the inverse ratio of the area considered. 

 So I will take as an example — given more in detail elsewhere 

 in this \()lume the area in which we actually cari'ied on 

 our researches. This was a ])atch of jungle of a))()ut the 

 size of Central Park in \ew York City. During the first 

 week T made no attempt at careful observation, hut walked 

 around and thi-ough the selected zone, mapping it and de- 

 ciding on its outlines. My lists of !)irds observed on these 

 days were small indeed. Couhl these meagre notes have 

 been seen by my pessimistic friends who had ])r()phesied a 

 dearth of jungle life, their convictions w^ould have been 

 strengthened. And yet, when we had settled down to care- 

 ful study and watching, our lists grew out of all pro])ortions. 

 We were not collecting. ]Many and many a day I spent in 

 watching a certain group of birds without shooting one. 

 We made no concerted attempts at the shooting of tree-top 

 birds in the hope of adding a new name to our list. We 

 collected only what we needed for material for definite prob- 

 lems, and yet hardly a day passed when we did not find one 

 or more species new to us. At the end of our stay we had 

 made observations on two hundred and eighty-one different 

 species. And on the very last day of our work — when I 

 had finished packing and took a last farewell tramp, I saw- 

 two birds which I could not identify with any which w^e had 

 seen or shot before. In this same area, (piite incidentally, we 

 observed about fifty species of mammals, embracing all the 

 important forms of north-eastern South America, while with 

 Whitelv's birds which he gathered in this same locality, our 

 neighborhood was proven to be the home of three hundred 

 and fifty-one different species. 



As to still more i-estricted tro])ical areas I must refer 

 to the week's census of a single tree and the examination of 



