120 TKrough the Brazilian Wilderness 



the South American fauna on the ground, Bates probably 

 rendered most service ; but he hardly seems even to have 

 seen the animals with which the hunter is fairly familiar. 

 His interests, and those of the other biologists of his 

 kind, lay in other directions. In consequence, in treat- 

 ing of the life-histories of the very interesting big game, 

 we have been largely forced to rely either on native 

 report, in which acutely accurate observation is invariably 

 mixed with wild fable, or else on the chance remarks 

 of travellers or mere sportsmen, who had not the train- 

 ing to make them understand even what it was desirable 

 to observe. Nowadays there is a growing proportion of 

 big-game hunters, of sportsmen, who are of the Schilling, 

 Selous, and Shiras type. These men do work of capital 

 value for science. The mere big-game butcher is tending 

 to disappear as a type. On the other hand, the big-game 

 hunter who is a good observer, a good field naturalist, 

 occupies at present a more important position than ever 

 before, and it is now recognized that he can do work 

 which the closest naturalist cannot do. The big-game 

 hunter of this type and the outdoors, faunal naturalist, 

 the student of the life-histories of big mammals, have 

 open to them in South America a wonderful field in 

 which to work. 



The fire-ants, of which I have above spoken, are gen- 

 erally found on a species of small tree or sapling, with a 

 greenish trunk. They bend the whole body as they bite, 

 the tail and head being thrust downward. A few sec- 

 onds after the bite the poison causes considerable pain; 

 later it may make a tiny festering sore. There is cer- 

 tainly the most extraordinary diversity in the traits by 



