ANIMAL LIFE. 



71 



Again — I afterwards saw reason to modify my opinion, 

 founded on first impressions, with regard to the amount' 

 and variety of animal life in this and other parts of the 

 Amazonian forests. There is in fact a great variety of 

 mammals, birds, and reptiles, but they are widely scattered 

 and all excessively shy of man. The region is so exten- 

 sive, and uniform in the forest clothing of its surface, 

 that it is only at long intervals that animals are seen in 

 abundance, where some particular spot is found which 

 is more attractive than others. Brazil, moreover, is 

 throughout poor in terrestrial mammals, and the species 

 are of small size ; they do not, therefore, form a con- 

 spicuous feature in the forests. The huntsman would be 

 disappointed who expected to find here flocks of animals 

 similar to the bufi'alo-herds of North America, or the 

 swarms of antelopes and herds of ponderous pachyderms 

 of Southern Africa. We often read in books of travel 

 of the silence and gloom of the Brazilian forests. They 

 are realities, and the impression deepens on a longer ac- 

 quaintance. The few sounds of birds are of that pensive 

 and mysterious character which intensifies the feeling of 

 solitude rather than imparts a sense of life and cheerful- 

 ness. Sometimes in the midst of the stillness, a sudden 

 yell or scream will startle one ; this comes from some 

 defenceless fruit-eating animal which is pounced upon by 

 a tiger-cat or a boa-constrictor. Morning and evening 

 the howling monkeys make a most fearful and harrowing 

 noise, under which it is diflicult to keep up one's buoy- 

 ancy of spirit. The feeling of inhospitable wildness 

 which the forest is calculated to inspire, is in- 

 creased tenfold under this fearful uproar. Often, even 

 in the still midday hours, a sudden crash will be heard 



