The Him un in g Bird. 27 



frontier, distant 1,800 miles from the Atlantic. This 

 voyage of explorations was made in canoes, small boats 

 used by the natives. Only those who have done it, can have 

 an idea of how tedious and hard it is to make a voyage of 

 that description, all day long teased by myriads of a small 

 fly, Diptera, which sucks all your blood, causing a great irri- 

 tation and leaving on your skin a small round red spot which 

 gradually becomes black when it dries, so that in a short 

 time all the exposed parts are minutely tattoed red and 

 black. If you go on shore, even for a few minutes, a 

 multitude of small and large species of Garapatas, 

 11 Arachnidae " take possession of your clothes, and from 

 there introduce themselves in every parts of your body, 

 where they incrust their mandibles and remain fixed there 

 until they are fat and full grown, ready to lay their eggs. 

 Then they drop. Some are excessively minute and not 

 easy of detection after taking possession of you ; but you 

 are constantly reminded of their presence by the irritation 

 they produce on your skin. Others are of medium and 

 large size. These can be removed by hand, but it is a 

 tiresome work and not always successful as they 

 usually select the most inacessible places. If some days 

 have passed when you detect them, you pull them out 

 regardless of the consequences, but their mandibles are so 

 incrusted in your flesh, that in many cases the body comes 

 off but the head remains. Once the boat infested with 

 these insects you will have to bear with them until the end 

 of the voyage. These are the day pests, but as soon as 

 twilight comes new tormentors arrive. The first is a small 

 species of fly, Diptera, which is not injurious so far, but 

 hovers around you in such quantities that they find 

 their way in your eyes, nose, ears, and mouth and are 

 very importunate. This lasts until night sets in, then comes 

 Mosquitoes of all sizes, the pest known all over the world, 

 even in Europe, but it is quite impossible to have an idea 

 of the bites of these tropical species. Some are very large, 

 some are not, but they are so abundant that you cannot 

 have one minute of rest. Even with a mosquito net, which 

 is rather hard to endure in consequence of the heat, 

 and the small size of the boats, they find their way inside. 



The poison introduced in your blood by these tropical 

 Mosquitoes is very irritating. So that, with the inflamma- 

 tion produced by the bites of the day-pests, the heat, and the 

 Mosquitoes, you can imagine what a life it is for the 

 traveller, who risks himself on a journey of over one 

 thousand miles on a tropical river. 



Well, that is what Bates did, for love of science, and he 

 had to suffer this martyrdom for many months, until he 



