12 



PARA 



expanded into cushions, beneath which folds of skin form 

 a series of flexible plates. By means of this apparatus 

 they can walk or run across a smooth ceiling with their 

 backs downwards, the plated soles, by quick muscular 

 action, exhausting and admitting air alternately. These 

 Geckos are very repulsive in appearance. The Brazilians 

 give them the name of Osgas, and firmly believe them to 

 be poisonous ; they are, however, harmless creatures. 

 The species found in houses are small ; I have seen others 

 of great size, in crevices of tree trunks in the forest. 

 Sometimes Geckos are found with forked tails ; this re- 

 sults from the budding of a rudimentary tail at the side, 

 from an injury done to the member. A slight rap will 

 cause their tails to snap off ; the loss being afterwards 

 partially repaired by a new growth. The tails of lizards 

 seem to be almost useless appendages to the animals. 

 I used often to amuse myself in the suburbs, whilst 

 resting in the verandah of our house during the heat of 

 mid-day, by watching the variegated green, brown, and 

 yellow ground-lizards. They would come nimbly for- 

 ward, and commence grubbing with their fore feet and 

 snouts around the roots of herbage, searching for insect 

 larvae. On the slightest alarm they would scamper off ; 

 their tails cocked up in the air as they waddled awkwardly 

 away, evidently an incumbrance to them in their flight. 



Next to the birds and lizards, the insects of the suburbs 

 of Para deserve a few remarks. The species observed 

 in the weedy and open places, as already remarked, 

 were generally different from those which dwell in the 

 shades of the forest. It is worthy of notice that those 

 species which have the widest distribution in America, 

 and which have the closest affinity to those of the tropics 

 of the old world, are such as occur in open sunny places 

 near towns. The general appearance of the insects and 

 birds belonging to such situations is very similar to that 

 of European species. This resemblance, however, is, in 

 many cases, one of analogy only ; that is, the species 

 are similar in size, form, and colours, but belong to widely 

 different genera. Thus, all the small carnivorous beetles 

 seen running along sandy pathways, look precisely like 

 the Amarae, those oval coppery beetles which are seen 

 in similar situations in England. But they belong to 

 quite another genus — namely, Selenophorus, the genus 

 Amara being unknown in Tropical America. In butter- 



