172 Guyot on the Contrast in the Physical Features 
which connect themselves, or their mode of life, with the aque- 
ous, or with the vegetative e 
Hence, nothing is more wietdlide more sparkling, than the in- 
sect world in South America. The inexhaustible variety of their 
Species, the brilliancy of their colors, the size of their bodies, 
make them one of the most beaut ful ornaments of these regions. 
Here live the Hercules beetle, the largest of the Coleoptera; and 
those brilliant butterflies with broad wings, the Menelaus, the 
». Adonis, the Achilles, whose varying colors glitter in the sun like 
y e diamonds. But why be astonished? The existence of this 
~~ little animal world is almost altogether dependent on the vegeta- 
tion; the wealth of the one must create the wealth of the other. 
Am mong the vertebrates, no family is so largely represented as 
that of the reptiles, for moisture is their element, and the rivers 
_ and temporary lagoons of the rainy season are peopled with Cai- 
“mans, the crocodiles of the New World; the Iguanas, the most 
- gigantic of the lizards; the Basilisks and other species, which 
ent multiply in the warm and still waters. The forests harbor in 
. * z Breat numbers serpents.of every form and figure, even to those 
é Monstrous boas, that are the terror of the natives themselves. 
They seem to be at home.in this countr 
But among the superior animals, development seems to be ar- - ‘ 
“ested ; it is “incomplete. The prevailing types are at the same 
» Aime the inferior types. Among the birds, the stilt-plovers, in- 
habitants ‘of the-nfarshes and the shores, of which the number 
: “of ‘species surpasses far, in America, that ‘of a any other continent. 
‘In the niammifera, the order of Edentata, the Armadillos, the 
Pang olins, the Ant-eaters, the Sloths; which characterize, more _ 
any other family, the fauna of South America; ~ only in 
rt esent-epoch, but also in the geological ages. if we 
eo seb fepresenpilives of the higher stgaipa wi find . cies less nu- . 
\ 3 “merous in species, smaller in size ; ‘in a w d, ‘far inferior’to the: 3 
ite * Seotrespondisg ‘animals of the Old World,. "$i: the ‘order of the — 
. - Batis, thos instead of the elephant, the _thino cere,” cg hippe 
, those. giants of the Old World, y ; feebk i 
iP yr ane pecari. In the Ruminanfs a 
. andthe dr y, the lama-of the Andes 
Instead. of, the | i 
Ae Jaguar of thé forests of, Brazil? 
ta ~Igrze c ats. cal i fing 
ae whigh are : ta ee af. 
ite B fect the- ton ur order J ! 
< 2 Not enly 
Yr." 
lent, but t 
=" Mobthe ons toe 
2 a4 ee 
