84 



ASPECTS OF TROPICAL NATURE 



the forest-streams, or on sunny slopes, and, with raised head 

 and distended jaws, seem to inhale with delight the sultry 

 air. 



As evening approaches, the noise of the morning begins to 

 re -awaken. With loud cries the parrots return from their 

 distant feeding-grounds to the trees on which they are ac- 

 customed to rest at night ; and, as the monkeys saluted the 

 rising sun, so chattering or howling, they watch him sinking 

 in the west. 



With twilight a new world of animals, — which, as long as 

 the day lasted, remained concealed in the recesses of the forest, 

 — awakens from its mid-day torpor, and prepares to enjoy its 

 nightly revels. Then bats of hideous size wing their noiseless 

 flight through the wood, chasing the giant hawk-moths and 

 beetles, which have also waited for the evening hour, while the 

 felida3 quit their lairs, ready to spring on the red stag near some 

 solitary pool, or on the unwieldy tapir, who, having slept during 

 the heat of the day, seeks, as soon as evening approaches, the 

 low-banked river, where he loves to wallow in the mud. Then 

 also the shy opossum quits his nest in hollow trees, or under 

 some arch-like vaulted root, to search for insects or fruits, and 

 the cautious agouti sallies from the bush. 



In our forests scarcely a single tone is heard after sunset ; but 

 in the tropical zone many loud voices celebrate the night, where, 

 for hours after the sun has disappeared, the cicadas, toads, frogs, 

 owls, and goatsuckers chirrup, cry, croak, howl, and wail. The 

 quietest hours are from midnight until about three in the morn- 

 ing. Complete silence, however, occurs only during very short 

 intervals ; for there is always some cause or other that prompts 

 some animal to break the stillness. Sometimes the din grows 

 so loud, that one might fancy a legion of evil spirits were 

 celebrating their orgies in the darkness of the forest. The 

 howling of the aluates, the whine of the little sapajous, the snarl 

 of the duruculi, the roaring of the jaguar, the grunt of the 

 pecari, the cry of the sloth, and the shrill voices of birds, join 

 in dreadful discord. Humboldt supposes the first cause of these 

 tumults to be a conflict among animals, which, arising by chance, 

 gradually swells to larger dimensions. The jaguai* pursues a 

 herd of pecaris or tapirs which break wildly through the bushes. 



