76 ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 
Few insects appear: and he may frequently ride for 
hours without meeting with a single lepidopterous insect 
worth preserving. Vegetation has lost its luxuriance, 
and with it the power of nourishing those innumerable 
insects which feed on the tender and juicy leaves of 
plants flowering in a rich and humid soil. The low 
trees and scanty thickets produce a variety of small 
berries, affording nourishment to the hard-billed ta- 
nagers and finches, few of which are met with in the 
forests of the coast. The Sertem, or inland country, 
particularly the tabulas, are the chosen haunts of nearly 
all the parrakeets: here they are seen, in flocks in- 
numerable, living upon the berries ; while the harder 
nuts of the different palms so frequently met with in 
the interior, are the favourite food of the larger parrots 
and mackaws. The humming-birds, also, are never 
seen in the recesses of forests ; for, as they principally 
live on vegetable juices, they naturally frequent the 
more open tracts and the thickets of the Catinga woods, 
abounding in small but odoriferous flowers. The 
Catingas, again, have their peculiar inhabitants. The 
animals principally found here are the sloths, armadillos, 
cavies, and squirrels ; while a few of the smaller monkeys 
seem to prefer these lesser woods to the forests. The 
insects are more numerous than on the Tabularas ; 
but they are small, and only interesting to the na- 
turalist from their locality. 
The bush-shrikes (Thamno- 
philus) and the ant-thrushes 
(Drymophila Sw.) are also 
nearly peculiar to the Catingas ; 
to which many of the fruit- 
eaters (Ampelide Sw.) resort, 
at certain seasons, to devour 
the berrries. Few of these 
splendid birds (of which the blue-collared Ampelis 
Catinga L. (fig. 26.) is, perhaps, the most magnificent) 
are found near the coast. 
(108.) The Campos, or plains, are still more thinly 
