Ill ON ANIMAL LIFE 81 



threatened them. We heard the same noises 

 repeated during the course of whole months 

 whenever the forest approached the bed of the 

 river. 



" When the natives are interrogated on the 

 causes of the tremendous noise made by 

 the beasts of the forest at certain hours of 

 the night, the answer is, they are keeping the 

 feast of the full moon. I believe this agita- 

 tion is most frequently the effect of some con- 

 flict that has arisen in the depths of the 

 forest. The jaguars, for instance, pursue the 

 peccaries and the tapirs, which, having no 

 defence, flee in close troops, and break down 

 the bushes they find in their way. Terrified 

 at this struggle, the timid and distrustful 

 monkeys answer, from the tops of the trees, 

 the cries of the large animals. They awaken 

 the birds that live in society, and by degrees 

 the whole assembly is in commotion. It is 

 not always in a fine moonlight, but more par- 

 ticularly at the time of a storm of violent 

 showers, that this tumult takes place among 

 the wild beasts. ' May heaven grant them a 

 quiet night and repose, and us also ! ' said the 



