70 TROPICAL NATURE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. 



forms, structures, and habits, as to render any typical 

 characterisation of them impossible. We must then, in 

 the first place, suppose that our traveller is on the look 

 out for all signs of animal life ; and that, possessing a 

 general acquaintance as an out-door observer with the 

 animals of our own country, he carefully notes those 

 points in which the forests of the equatorial zone offer 

 different phenomena. Here, as in the case of plants, we 

 exclude all zoological science, classifications, and nomen- 

 clature, except in as far as it is necessary for a clear 

 understanding of the several groups of animals referred 

 to. We shall therefore follow no systematic order in 

 our notes, except that which would naturally arise from 

 the abundance or prominence of the objects themselves. 

 We further suppose our traveller to have no prepos- 

 sessions, and to have no favourite group, in the search 

 after which he passes by other objects which, in view 

 of their frequent occurrence in the landscape, are really 

 more important. 



General Aspect of the Animal Life of Equatorial 

 Forests. — Perhaps the most general impression produced 

 by a first acquaintance with the equatorial forests, is the 

 comparative absence of animal life. Beast, bird, and 

 insect alike require looking for, and it very often 

 happens that we look for them in vain. On this subject 

 Mr. Bates, describing one of his early excursions into 

 the primeval forests of the Amazon Valley, remarks as 

 follows : — " We were disappointed in not meeting with 

 any of the larger animals of the forest. There was no 

 tumultuous movement or sound of life. We did not see 

 or hear monkeys, and no tapir or jaguar crossed our 

 path. Birds also appeared to be exceedingly scarce." 



