ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
123 
ONE HOUR OF JUNGLE LIFE* 
By William Beebe 
T HE dearth of life and the silence in the 
tropical jungle is emphasized and reiterated 
in book after book of travel, and as long as 
the observer is actually travelling, he will in¬ 
deed see little more than the few frightened 
creatures which rush from his path. When he 
is content to cease from being a traveller, and 
become a stander, or sitter or squatter, the 
wealth of tropical life begins to be apparent. 
Even the patient digger or grubber will reap a 
rich harvest, as when once I searched and found 
a thousand living beings in a square yard of 
jungle floor. 1 
Movement, not conspicuous clothing or human 
form, is the disturbing factor which drives a 
host of creatures into hiding just before the eyes 
can detect them, and makes a walk through a 
primeval forest often a disappointing experi¬ 
ence. This can be mitigated by slow movements 
and intensive observation, and the following is 
the record of a mile walk west from the Tropi¬ 
cal Research Station at Kartabo, back along the 
Puruni Trail, from 7:30 to 8 :30 in the morning 
of March 26 of the present year. There was 
no wind; the first fifteen minutes were cloudy, 
while the sun shown brightly the remainder 
of the time. 
I went slowly, making notes as I walked, and 
covered the mile in forty-five minutes. The last 
quarter of an hour I spent motionless in one spot 
near a deep gully. Writing as rapidly as pos¬ 
sible, with only an occasional glance at my note¬ 
book, I recorded every hint of living organism 
seen or heard, five hundred and thirty-six in all, 
and made a brief written or mental note about 
each observation. To this list I have added an 
occasional identification term to clarify my brief 
written word. It forms, I think, a satisfactory 
answer to statements of the paucity of jungle 
life. Our ecological work at the Station will 
ultimately show, as never before, the enormous 
population of a quarter of a square mile of tropi¬ 
cal rain forest. 
List of Organisms Observed in Forty-five Minutes 
Along a Mile of Tropical Jungle Trail 
Brain-Fever Cotinga (Attila); heard the note of this beau¬ 
tiful bird as I left the Laboratory clearing at 7:30 
A.M. 
Kiskadee Tyrant Flycatcher ( Pitangus ) seen and heard. 
Chestnut-Breasted Seedeater ( Sporophila) in full song. 
Spine-Tailed Swifts (Chaetura), three flying over. 
Small Red Beetle. 
^Tropical Research Station, Contribution Number 121. 
Zoological Society Bulletin, Vol. XIX, No. 1 and 
Zoologica II, No. 4, 1916, p. 107. 
Giant Black Orioles ( Ostinops ) three seen and heard,, one 
giving courtship performance. 
Cicada heard south. 
Dusky Nighthawk ( Caprimulgus ) flying up from trail; a 
true jungle bird, often perching on high limbs of trees. 
Red-Backed Caciques (Cacicus) , two flying toward their 
nesting trees up the Mazaruni. 
Green Trogon ( Trogon strigilatus ) heard giving its breeding 
song. 
Black Cuckoo ( Crotophaga ) heard, whaleep! whaleep! 
Small Green Caterpillar. 
Green, Long-Legged Fly (Dolicbopodidae) walking swiftly 
about on leaf. 
Small, Black, Ichneumon-Fly searching for spiders. 
Green Tree Snake ( Oxybelis ) moving slowly through 
branches. 
Large, Brown Cricket ( Encopterides ) chirping with its vi¬ 
brating wings. 
Green Membracids, eight of these attended by ants on a 
weed stem. 
Small Brown Ants, three running on ground. 
Green Dwarf Woodpecker {Picumnus undulatus) hammering 
at an insect’s cocoon in a rolled-up leaf. 
Small Brown Robber Fly ( Asilidae ) eating prey on leaf. 
Blackish Birds, two, unidentified, flying through jungle. 
Silver-Beakf.d Tanagers ( Ramphocclus ) two in tree tops. 
Yellow-Lined Grasshopper, a clearing species, rather out of 
place in the forest. 
Wax-Covered Coccids, a group attended by ants. 
Large Blue Hunting Wasp ( Pompilid ) half flying, half 
walking over leaves. 
Antbirds (Formicariidac) , three, unidentified, in dense 
foliage. 
Small Metallic Fly ( Volucella ) on leaf. 
Land Crab ( Cardisoma ) scuttling into underbrush. 
Metallic Flies, three more. 
Giant Green Grasshopper (Acrididae) crawling up tree 
trunk. 
Jungle Pigeons ( Leptoptila ru-fajnlla) , two males calling 
loudly from neighboring trees. 
Red Ants, four on guard with jaws raised, on leaf. 
Small Brown Cricket. 
Rufous Hermit Hummingbird ( Phaethornis ruber ) flying 
across trai'. 
Small Brown Weevil 
White-Spotted Membracids, three in a iow along stem. 
Caterpillar of black papilio butterfly ( Papilio ). 
Cicada calling, different species from other heard seven 
minutes before. 
Guiana Motmots ( Momotus moniota), three perching in 
berry tree, swinging their tails from side to side. 
Small Brown Grasshoppers, two on leaves. 
Large Green Katydid on under side of leaf. 
Small White-Spotted Beetle ( Chrysomelidae ) on leaf. 
Turquoise-Winged Weevil. 
Green-and-Black Chalcid Wasp, very small, searching under 
leaves. 
Black-Faced Frogs ( Leptodactylus mystacinus ) two in a 
small pit. 
Green Ground Lizard ( Ameiva ), large male in pit. 
Cayenne Hermit Hummingbird ( Phaethornis superciliosus) 
squeaking among some flowers in a tree-top. 
Robber Flies ( Asilidae ) two large, hairy individuals, mating. 
Oblique-Striped Jungle Lizard ( Anolis ) scurrying over 
leaves. 
Medium Metallic Bee ( Euglossa ) hovering close to ground. 
Carrion Flies, twenty-four, of five species, around dead frog. 
Land Minnows ( Rivulus stagnatus) two of these land-travel¬ 
ling fish in a pit dug for trapping frogs. 
Wood Roach ( Blattidae ) small brown roach on dead leaf. 
Sulphur-and-White-Breasted Toucan ( Ramphastos vitelli- 
nus) , calling to the north. 
Small Brown Caterpillars grouped together on leaf. 
Woodpecker, unidentified, hammering to the south. 
Small Gnats, a large cloud hovering overhead. 
Quadrille Bird ( Leucolepis musica) gave its wonderful call 
close to the trail three times, wholly different each 
time. Did not see it. 
Green Stick Grasshopper ( Tryxalid ) resting in center of 
leaf. 
Giant Black Solitary Ant (Dinoponcra j walking up tree. 
Rufous Hermit Hummingbird flying about my face. 
Yellow-Winged Deer Fly ( Tabanidae ) alighting on my hand. 
Common Ithomiid Butterfly ( Melineaf) fluttering slowly 
along. 
Crackling Manakins (Manacus manacus), a pair flying 
across trail. 
Small Army Ants, a file passing rapidly over leaves and 
ground. 
Bird-Winged Morpho Butterfly ( Morpho menclaus) zig¬ 
zagging rapidly past me up the trail. 
Robber Fly with a small wasp in its jaws. 
Hump-Backed Flies ( Hylomyzidae ) resting on leaves. 
Brown Ant on leaf. 
Green Spider under leaf. 
Ichneumon-Fly with white antennae flying slowly. 
Small White-Spotted Caterpillar on leaf. 
