Animals and Birds on the Andes. 105 



six-horned), are importations. Of these animals, which ren- 

 dered such important aid in the early civilization of Asia 

 and Europe, the genera even were unknown in South Amer- 

 ica four centuries ago ; and to-day pure Indians with dif- 

 ficulty acquire a taste for beef, mutton, and pork. The 

 llama is still used as a beast of burden ; but it seldom car- 

 ries a quintal more than twelve miles a day. The black 

 bear of the Andes ascends as high as Mont Blanc, and is 

 rarely found below three thousand five hundred feet. The 

 puma, or raaneless American lion, has an immense range, 

 both in latitude and altitude, being found from Oregon to 

 the Straits of Magellan, and nearly up to the limit of eter- 

 nal snow. It is as cowardly as the jaguar of the lowlands 

 is ferocious. It is a very silent animal, uttering no cry 

 even when wounded. Its flesh, which is very white, and 

 remarkably like veal in taste, is eaten in Patagonia. Squir- 

 rels, hares, bats (a small species), opossums, and a large 

 guinea-pig {Cuye del Monte), are found in the neighbor- 

 hood of Quito. 



As only about sixty species of birds are common to North 

 and South America, the traveler from the United States 

 recognizes few ornithic forms in the Valley of Quito. Save 

 the hummers, beautiful plumage is rare, as well as fine 

 songsters. But the moment we descend the Eastern Cor- 

 dillera into the interior of the continent, we find the feath- 

 ered race in robes of richest colors. The exact cause of 

 this brilliant coloring in the tropics is still a problem. It 

 can not be owing to greater light and heat, for the birds of 

 the Galapagos Islands, directly under the equator, are dull.* 



* Mr. Gould, however, holds that the difference of coloration is due to the 

 different degrees of exposure to the sun's rays, the hrilliantly-colored species 

 being inhabitants of the edges of the forest. Birds from Ucayali, in the cen- 

 tre of the continent, are far more splendid than those which represent them 

 in countries nearer the sea, owing to the clearer atmosphere inland. But it 

 is a fact, at least exceptional to this theory, that the ' ' Cock of the Kock" 



