314 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



the entrance. A minute passed and directly across my line 

 of vision, a few inches away from my face, crawled, as rapidly 

 as it could move, a very large caterpillar almost four inches 

 in length. Never have I seen a more remarkable looking 

 one. Its ground color was a peculiar dark wine-red or purple, 

 like the plumage of the Pompadour Cotinga. From the 

 sides of the back projected brush-like tufts of red and black 

 hair, while a continuous line of dense golden hair extended 

 out from the body just above the feet. Over six segments 

 was drawn a pale yellow pattern of the most delicate lace- 

 like markings, a dainty network different on each segment. 

 Altogether it was a wondrous creature and entirely put the 

 burrowing mammal out of mind. 



I carried it to our improvised laboratory on the veranda 

 of the bungalow, but it refused food of all description, and 

 day by day became smaller in size and duller in color. In- 

 stead of dying, it transformed one night into a large, beautiful 

 chrysalid, yellow-green with a pale bloom over the surface. 

 It was an inch and a half in length, thick-set in the centre 

 and tapering rapidly. The joint between the fifth and sixth 

 segments was hinged and the terminal portion would swing 

 vigorously from side to side. The spiracle on the sixth 

 segment was cream colored and much longer than the others, 

 while the bottom of the chrysalid ended in two short, brownish 

 spines. Seventeen days later in Georgetown, a beautiful 

 orange-shaded Morpho butterfly emerged. I looked it up 

 in a curious old volume, " The Insects of Suriname " by 

 Madame Merriam, written many years ago, and found it was 

 a rare insect, Morpho melelhis, light orange on the fore-wings, 

 shading toward the body into pale green and on the hinder 

 wings to velvety black. From tip to tip it spreads six inches. 



On this tramp I heard at least a dozen unusually loud or 

 musical calls and whistles, new to me, which I could not trace 

 to their authors. In one case, however, I was successful. 



