300 The Andes and the Amazon. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



Life around the Great River. — Insects. — Reptiles. — Birds. — Mammals. 



The forest of the Amazon is less full of life than the 

 river. Beasts, birds, and reptiles are exceedingly scarce ; 

 still there is, in fact, a great variety, but they are widely 

 scattered and very shy. In the animal, as in the vegetable 

 kingdom, diversity is the law ; there is a great paucity of 

 individuals compared with the species.* Insects are rare 

 in the dense forest ; they are almost confined to the more 

 open country along the banks of the rivers. Ants are per- 

 haps the most numerous. There is one species over an 

 inch long. But the most prominent, by their immense 

 numbers, are the dreaded saiibas. Well -beaten paths 

 branch off in every direction through the forest, on which 

 broad columns may be seen marching to and fi'o, each 

 bearing vertically a circular piece of leaf. Unfortunately 

 they prefer cultivated trees, especially the coffee and 

 orange. They are also given to plundering provisions ; in 

 a single night they will carry off bushels of farina. They 

 are of a light red color, with powerful jaws. In every 

 formicarium or ant colony there are three sets of individ- 

 uals — males, females, and workers ; but the saiibas have 

 the singularity of possessing three classes of workers. The 

 light-colored mounds often met in the forest, sometimes 



* Amazonia is divided into four distinct zoological districts : those of 

 Ecuador, Peru, Guiana, and Brazil ; the limits being the Amazon, Madei- 

 ra, and Negro. The species fovmd on one side of these rivers are seldom 

 found on the other. 



