Another interesting and common bird was the Japim, a species of Cassicus (C. icteronotus). It belongs to the same family of bird as our starling, magpie, and rook. It has a rich yellow and black plumage remarkably compact and velvety in texture. The shape of its head and its physiognomy are very similar to those of the magpie; it has light grey eyes, which give it the same knowing expression. It is social in its habits; and builds its nest, like the English rook, on trees in the neighbourhood of habitations. But the nests are quite differently constructed, being shaped like purses, two feet in length, and suspended from the slender branches all round the tree, some of them very near the ground. The entrance is on the side, near the bottom of the nest. This bird is a great favourite with the Brazilians of Pard: it is a noisy, stirring, babbling creature, passing constantly to and fro, chattering to its comrades, and is very ready at imitating other birds, especially the domestic poultry of the vicinity. There was at one time a weekly newspaper published at Pard, called “The Japim”; the name being chosen, I suppose, on account of the babbling propensities of the bizd. Its eggs are nearly round, and of a bluish-white colour, speckled with brown., Of other vertebrate animals we saw very little, except of the lizards. These are sure to attract the attention of the new comer from Northern Europe, by reason of their strange appearance, great numbers, and variety. ‘The species which are seen crawling over the walls of buildings in the city are different from those found in the forest or in the interior of houses. ‘They are unpleasant-looking animals, with colours assimilated to those of the dilapidated stone and mud walls on which they are

seen. The house lizards belong to a peculiar family, the Geckos. They are found even in the best-kept houses, most frequently on the walls and ceilings: they are generally motionless by day, being active only at night. They are of speckled grey or ashy colours. The structure of their feet is beautifully adapted for clinging to and running over smooth surfaces; the underside of their toes being 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 results 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 forward, and commence grubbing with their fore feet and snouts around the roots of herbage, searching for insect larve. 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 Amare, 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 butterflies, again, we saw a small species of Erycinide flying about low shrubs in grassy places, which was extremely similar in colours to the European Nemeobius Lucina. The Pard insect, however, belongs to a genus far removed in all essential points of structure from Nemeobius: namely, to Lemonias, being the L. epulus. It is worthy of note that all the Old-World representatives, both tropical and temperate, of this beautiful family of butterflies belong to the same group as the English Nemeobius Lucina; whilst the few species inhabiting North America belong wholly to South American types.

10 PARA. Cuap. 1.

Facts of this kind, and there are many of them, would seem to show that it is not wholly the external conditions of light, heat, moisture, and so forth, which determine the general aspect of the animals of a country. It is a notion generally entertained that the superior size and beauty of tropical insects and birds are immediately due to the physical conditions of a tropical climate, or are in some way directly connected with them. I think this notion is an incorrect one, and that there are other causes more powerful than climatal conditions which affect the dress of species. To test this we ought to compare the members of those genera which are common to two regions—say, to Northern Europe and equinoctial America—and ascertain which climate produces the largest and most beautifully-coloured species. We should thus see the supposed effects of climate on nearly-allied congeners, that is, creatures very similarly organised. In the first family of the order Coleoptera, for instance, the tiger-beetles (Cicindelide), there is one genus, Cicindela, common to the two regions. The species found in the Amazons Valley have precisely the same habits as their English brethren, running and flying over sandy soils in the bright sunshine. About the same number is found in each of the two countries: but all the Amazonian species are far smaller in size and more obscure in colour than those inhabiting Northern Europe; none being at all equal in these respects to the common English Cicindela campestris, the handsome light-green tiger-beetle, spotted with white, which is familiar to country residents of natural history tastes in most parts of England. In butterflies I find there are eight genera common to the two regions we are thus pitting against each other. Of these, three only (Papilio, Pieris and Thecla) are represented by handsomer species in Amazonia than in Northern Europe. Three others (Lycena, Melitea and Apatura) yield far more beautiful and larger forms in England than in the Amazonian plains; as to the remaining two (Pamphila and Pyrgus) there is scarcely any difference. There is another and hitherto neglected fact which I would strongly press upon those who are interested in these subjects. This is, that it is almost always the ma/es only which are beautiful in colours. The brilliant dress is rarely worn by both sexes of the same species: if climate has any direct influence in this matter, why have not both sexes felt its effects, and why are the males of genera living under our gloomy English skies adorned with bright colours? The tropics, it is true, have a vastly greater total number of handsome butterflies than the temperate zones; but it must be borne in mind that they contain a far greater number of genera and species altogether. It holds good in all families that the two sexes of the more brilliantly-coloured kinds are seldom equally beautiful; the females being often quite obscure in dress. ‘There is a very large number of dull-coloured species in tropical countries. The tropics have also species in which the contrast between the sexes is greater than in any species of temperate zones; in some cases the males have been put in one genus and the females in another, so great is the difference between them. There are species of larger size, but at the same time there are others of smaller size, in the same families in

Cuap. I. TROPICAL BUTTERFLIES.. I!

tropical than in temperate latitudes. If we reflect on all these facts, we must come to the conclusion, that climate, to which we are naturally at first sight inclined to attribute much, has little or no direct influence in the matter. Mr. Darwin was led to the same conclusion many years ago, when comparing the birds, plants, and insects of the Galapagos islands, situated under the equator, with those of Patagonia and Tropical America. The abundance of food, the high temperature, absence of seasons, extreme of cold and dearth, and the variety of stations, all probably operate in favouring the existence of a greater number and variety of species in tropical than in temperate latitudes. This, perhaps, is all we can say with regard to the influence of climatal conditions. The causes which have produced the great beauty that astonishes us, if we really wish to investigate them, must be sought in other directions. I think that the facts above mentioned are calculated to guide us in the search. They show, for instance, that beauty of form and colour is not peculiar to one zone, but is producible under any climate where a number of species of a given genus lead a flourishing existence. The ornamental dress is generally the property of one sex to the exclusion of the other, and the cases of widest contrast between the two are exhibited in those regions where life is generally more active and prolific. All this points to the mutual relations of the species, and especially to those between the sexes, as having far more to do in the matter than climate.

In the gardens, numbers of fine showy butterflies were seen. There were two swallow-tailed species, similar in colours to the English Papilio Machaon; a white Pieris (P. Monuste), and two or three species of brimstone and orange coloured butterflies, which do not belong, however, to the same genus as our English species. In weedy places, a beautiful butterfly, with eye-like spots on its wings, was common, the Junonia Lavinia, the only Amazonian species which is at all nearly related to our Vanessas, the Admiral and Peacock butterflies. One day we made our first acquaintance with two of the most beautiful productions of nature in this department: namely, the Helicopis Cupido and Endymion. A little beyond our house, one of the narrow green lanes which I have already mentioned diverged from the Monguba avenue, and led between enclosures overrun with a profusion of creeping plants and glorious flowers, down to a moist hollow, where there was a public well in a picturesque nook, buried in a grove of Mucaja palm-trees. On the tree-trunks, walls, and palings grew a great quantity of climbing Pothos plants, with large glossy heart-shaped leaves. These plants were the resort of these two exquisite species, and we captured a great number of specimens. ‘They are of extremely delicate texture. The wings are cream-coloured; the hind pair have several tail-like appendages, and are spangled beneath as if with silver. Their flight is very slow and feeble; they seek the protected undersurface of the leaves, and in repose close their wings over the back, so as to expose the brilliantly spotted under-surface.

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