IIONS AT MIDNIGHT. 59 



deep growl he rises, and limps away to a bushy cover, 

 where he roars mournfully, and dies. 



Or take him a few nights afterwards, when from the 

 same pit he sees six lions together approach to drink. 

 Six lions at midnight there ! two men here ! nothing be- 

 tween the parties but a little pool, which a ten minutes' 

 walk would encircle ! One of the lions detects the in- 

 truder, and, with her eye fixed upon him, creeps round 

 the head of the fountain. What a moment of suspense ! 

 But once more the fatal ball speeds ; and the too curious 

 lioness, mortally wounded, bounds away with a howl, 

 followed by her five companions in a cloud of dust. 



Very difiierent from such a scene is the gorgeous gloom 



of a Brazilian forest, where the wiry- haired sloth hangs 



from the branches, the toothless ant-eater breaks up A\-ith 



i its hoofs the great earthy nests of the termites, and the 



' armadillo burrows in the soil ; where the capybara and 



j the tapir rush to the water ; where painted toucans cry to 



< each other, golden-plumaged trogons sit on the topmost 



1 boughs, and sparkling humming-birds flit over the 



flowers ; where beetles, like precious stones, crawl up the 



huge trunks, and butterflies of all brilliant hues fan the 



, still and loaded air. Not like the small and pale or 



! sombre-hued species that we see in the fields and gardens 



j of Britain are these : their numbers are prodigious ; their 



I variety bewildering; many of them are adorned with the 



I most splendid colours, and some of the finest are of 



I immense size. Very characteristic of this region are the 



I species of the genus Morpho ; great butterflies larger 



