74 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



savannas^ and forests, abound^ with the largest serpents 

 and wild beasts ; and its trees are the habitation of the 

 most beautiful of the feathered race. While the tra- 

 veller in the old world is astonished at the elephant, 

 the tiger, the lion, and the rhinoceros, he who wanders 

 through the torrid regions of the new, is lost in admi- 

 ration at the cotingas, the toucans, the humming-birds, 

 and aras. 



The ocean, likewise, swarms with curiosi- 

 ^^^"^ ^ " ties. Probably the flying-fish may be con- 

 sidered as one of the most singular. This little scaled 

 inhabitant of water and air seems to have been more 

 favoured than the rest of its finny brethren. It can 

 rise out of the waves, and on wing visit the domain of 

 the birds. After flying two or three hundred yards, the 

 intense heat of the sun has dried its pellucid wings, 

 and it is obliged to wet them, in order to continue its 

 flight. It just drops into the ocean for a moment, and 

 then rises again and flies on ; and then descends to re- 

 moisten them, and then up again into the air : thus 

 passing its life, sometimes wet, sometimes dry, sometimes 

 in sunshine, and sometimes in the pale moon's nightly 

 beam, as pleasure dictates, or as need requires. The 

 additional assistance of wings is not thrown away upon 

 it. It has full occupation both for fins and wings, as 

 its life is in perpetual danger. 



The bonito and albicore chase it day and night j but 

 the dolphin is its worst and swiftest foe. If it escape 

 into the air, the dolphin pushes on with proportional 

 velocity beneath, and is ready to snap it up the moment 

 it descends to wet its wings. 



You will often see above one hundred of these httle 

 marine aerial fugitives on the wing at once. They 



