104 
WANDERINGS IN 
SECOND 
JOUKNEY. 
Snakes. 
Tigers. 
Insects. 
Birds. 
Hum¬ 
ming- 
bird. 
of the dews of night. A hat, a shirt, and a light 
pair of trowsers, will be all the raiment you require. 
Custom will soon teach you to tread lightly and 
barefoot on the little inequalities of the ground, and 
show you how to pass on, unwounded, amid the 
mantling briers. 
Snakes, in these wilds, are certainly an annoyance, 
though perhaps more in imagination than reality; 
for you must recollect that the serpent is never the 
first to offend: his poisonous fang was not given 
him for conquest: he never inflicts a wound with 
it but to defend existence. Provided you walk 
cautiously, and do not absolutely touch him, you 
may pass in safety close by him. As he is often 
coiled up on the ground, and amongst the branches 
of the trees above you, a degree of circumspection is 
necessary, lest you unwarily disturb him. 
Tigers are too few, and too apt to fly before the 
noble face of man, to require a moment of your 
attention. 
The bite of the most noxious of the insects, at the 
very worst, only causes a transient fever, with a 
degree of pain more or less. 
Birds in general, with a few exceptions, are not 
common in the very remote parts of the forest. The 
sides of rivers, lakes, and creeks, the borders of 
savannas, the old abandoned habitations of Indians 
and wood-cutters, seem to be their favourite haunts. 
Though least in size, the glittering mantle of the 
humming-bird entitles it to the first place in the list of 
the birds of the new world. It may truly be called 
