III. 



ANIMAL LIFE IN THE TROPICAL FOEESTS. 



Difficulties of the Subject— General Aspect of the Animal life of Equatorial 

 Forests — Diurnal Lepidoptera or Butterflies — Peculiar Habits of Tropical 

 Butterflies — Ants, Wasps^ and Bees — Ants — Special Relations between 

 Ants and Vegetation — Wasps and Bees— Orthoptera and other Insects — 

 Beetles — Wingless Insects — General Observations on Tropical Insects — 

 Birds — Parrots — Pigeons — Picarise — Cackoos — Trogons, Barbets, Toucans 

 and Hornbills— Passeres — Reptiles and Amphibia — Lizards— Snakes — 

 Frogs and Toads — Mammalia — Monkeys — Bats — Summary of the 

 Aspects of Animal life in the Tropics. 



The attempt to give some account of tlie general 

 aspects of animal life in the equatorial zone, presents 

 far greater difficulties than in the case of plants. On the 

 one hand, animals rarely play any important part in 

 scenery, and their entire absence may pass quite un- 

 noticed ; while the abundance, variety, and character of 

 the vegetation are among those essential features that 

 attract every eye. On the other hand, so many of the 

 more important and characteristic types of animal life 

 are restricted to one only out of the three great divisions 

 of equatorial land, that they can hardly be claimed as 

 characteristically tropical ; while the more extensive 

 zoological groups which have a wide range in the tropics 

 and do not equally abound in the temperate zones, are 

 few in number, and often include such a diversity of 



