304: The Andes and the Amazon. 



that insect life increases in the same proportion as vegeta- 

 ble life. There is not a single beetle on Melville Island; 

 eleven species are found in Greenland ; in England, 2500 ; 

 in Brazil, 8000. Here Hves the king of spiders, the My- 

 gale Blondii, a monstrous hairy fellow, five inches long, 

 of a brown color, with yellowish lines along its stout legs. 

 Its abode is a slanting subterranean gallery about two feet 

 in length, the sides of which are beautifully lined with 

 silk. Other spiders barricade the walks in the forest with 

 invisible threads ; some build nests in the trees and attack 

 birds ; others again spin a closely-woven web, resembling 

 fine muslin, under the thatched roofs of the houses. 



Of land vertebrates, lizards are the first to attract the 

 attention of the traveler on the equator. Great in num- 

 ber and variety, they are met every where — crawling up 

 the walls of buildings, scampering over the hot, dusty 

 roads, gliding through the forest. They stand up on their 

 legs, carry their tails cocked up in the air, and run with 

 the activity of a warm-blooded animal. It is almost im- 

 possible to catch them. Some of them are far from being 

 the unpleasant-looking animals many people imagine ; but 

 in their coats of many colors, green, gray, brown, and yel- 

 low, they may be pronounced beautiful. Others, however, 

 have a repiilsive aspect, and are a yard in length. The 

 iguana, peculiar to the New World tropics, is covered with 

 minute green scales banded with brown (though it chan- 

 ges its color like the chameleon), and has a serrated back 

 and gular pouch. It grows to the length of five feet, and 

 is arboreal. Its white flesh, and its oblong, oily eggs, are 

 considered great delicacies. "We heard of a lady who 

 kept one as a pet. Frogs and toads, the chief musicians 

 in the Amazonian forest, are of all sizes, from an inch to 

 a foot in diameter. The Bufo gigas is of a dull gray 

 color, and is covered with warts. Tree-frogs {Hyla) are 



