CHAPTER XVI 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ZOOLOGY OF THE AMAZON DISTRICT. 



A. Mammalia. 



Notwithstanding the luxuriance of the vegetation, which 

 might be supposed to afford sustenance, directly or indirectly, 

 to every kind of animal life, the Amazon valley is remarkably 

 deficient in large animals, and of Mammalia generally has a 

 smaller number both of species and individuals, than any 

 other part of the world of equal extent, except Australia. 

 Three small species of deer, which occur but rarely, are the 

 only representatives of the vast herds of countless species of 

 deer and antelopes and buffaloes which swarm in Africa and 

 Asia, and of the wild sheep and goats of Europe and North 

 America. The tapir alone takes the place of the elephants 

 and rhinoceroses of the Old World. Two or three species of 

 large Felidce, and two wild hogs, with the capybara and paca, 

 comprise almost all its large game; and these are all thinly 

 scattered over a great extent of country, and never occur in 

 such large numbers as do the animals representing them in 

 other parts of the world. 



Those singular creatures, the sloths, the armadilloes, and 

 the ant-anters, are very generally distributed, but only occur 

 singly and sparingly. The small agoutis are perhaps rather 

 more plentiful ; but almost the only animals found in any 

 numbers are the monkeys, which are abundant, both in species 

 and individuals, and are the only mammalia that give some 

 degree of life to these trackless forests, which seem peculiarly 

 fitted for their development and increase. 



I met with twenty-one species of these animals, some of 

 which I had no opportunity of examining. Several others 

 exist; but it is necessary to reside for some years in each 



