DESCRIPTION OF ANIMALS, &c. IN BRAZIL.

THE following interesting sketch of the animated creation in the wilds of South America, is taken from the Travels in Brazil of two learned foreigners, Drs. Von Spix and Martius.

"How different are the feelings of the traveller when he passes from the dark low forests into the free and open tracts! On these serene and tranquil heights the noisy inhabitants of the wood are mute: we no longer hear the howling of herds of monkeys, the incessant screams of innumerable parrots, orioles, and toucans, the far-sounding hammering of the woodpeckers, the metallic notes of the uraponga, the full tones of manakins, the cry of the hoccos, jacus, &c. The more numerous are the humming-birds, buzzing like bees round the flowering shrubs; gay butterflies fluttering over the rippling streams; numerous wasps flying in and out of their long nests hanging suspended to the trees; and large hornets hovering over the ground, which is undermined to a great extent with their cells. The red-capped and hooded fly-catcher, the barbets, little sparrow-hawks, the rusty red or spotted Brazilian owl, bask on the shrubs during the heat of noon, and watch concealed among the branches for the small birds and insects which fly by; the tinamus walks slowly among the pine-apple plants, the cuapupés and nambús in the grass; single toucans, seeking berries, hop among the branches; the purple tanagers follow each other in amorous pursuit from tree to tree; the caracará and the caracaú flying about the roads, quite tame, to settle upon the backs of the mules or oxen; small woodpeckers silently creep up the trees and look in the bark for insects; the rusty thrush, called João de Barros, fearlessly fixes its oven-shaped nest quite low between the branches; the siskin-like creeper slips imperceptibly from its nest (which, like that of the pigeons, is built of twigs, and hangs down from the branches to the length of several feet,) to add a new division to it for this year; the Câoha sitting still on the tops of the trees, looks down after the serpents basking on the roads, which, even though poisonous, constitute its food; and sometimes, when it sees people approaching, it sets up a cry of distress, resembling a human voice. It is very rarely that the tranquillity of the place is interrupted, when garrulous orioles, little parrots and parroquets coming in flocks from the maize and cotton plantations in the neighbouring wood, alight upon the single trees on the campos, and with terrible cries appear still to contend for the booty; or bands of restless hooded cuckoos, crowded together

ACCOUNT OF THE RED-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD.

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upon the branches, defend, with a noisy croaking, their common nest, which is full of green speckled eggs.

"Alarmed by this noise, or by passing travellers, numerous families of little pigeons, often no bigger than a sparrow, fly from bush to bush: the larger pigeons, seeking singly among the bushes for food, hasten, alarmed, to the summits of the neighbouring wood, where their brilliant plumage shines in the sun; numerous flocks of little monkeys run whistling and hissing to the recesses of the forest; the cavies running about on the tops of the mountains, hastily secrete themselves under loose stones; the American ostriches, which herd in families, gallop at the slightest noise, like horses, through the bushes, and over hills and valleys, accompanied by their young; the dichotopus, which pursues serpents, flies, sometimes sinking into the grass, sometimes rising into the trees, or rapidly climbing the summits of the hills, where it sends forth its loud deceitful cry, resembling that of the bustard; the terrified armadillo runs fearfully about to look for a hiding place, or, when the danger presses, sinks into its armour; the ant-eater runs heavily through the plain, and in case of need, lying on its back, threatens its pursuers with its sharp claws. Far from all noise, the slender deer, the black tapir, or a pecari, feed on the skirts of the forest. Elevated above all this, the red-headed vulture soars in the higher regions; the dangerous rattle-snake hidden in the grasses, excites terror by its rattle; the gigantic snake sports suspended from the tree with its head upon the ground; and the crocodile, resembling the trunk of a tree, basks in the sun on the banks of the pools. After all this has passed, during the day, before the eyes of the traveller, the approach of night, with the chirping of the grasshoppers, the monotonous cry of the goat-sucker, the barking of the prowling wolf, and of the shy fox, or the roaring of the ounces, complete the singular picture of the animal kingdom in these peaceful plains.'

ACCOUNT OF THE RED-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD,-Le petit Rubis de la Caroline.

[Translated from "Lesson's Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux Mouches."] "ALTHOUGH this bird," says M. Vieillot (Ois. Dorés, p. 66.) "lives for four or five months in the more northern parts of America, as it is to be met with at New York about the beginning of May, and in Canada from about the end of the month until the autumn,-yet it equals in beauty those which

90 never leave the torrid zone. Some of them, indeed, have their throat adorned with the most brilliant colours. In one point of view, it is of a bright green; in another, it has the fire and brilliancy of the ruby; in a third, its sides are covered with gold; and if we look at the bird underneath, it presents the sombre hue of the garnet. It is impossible to describe the numerous shades of colouring which it exhibits. This humming-bird retires during the winter to the Floridas, and is rarely met with in the Antilles.

ACCOUNT OF THE RED-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD.

"It is not wild, but as soon as any one approaches in order to capture it, it springs up and vanishes like lightning. These little beings are extremely envious of each other. If several of them should meet on the same tree, when in blossom, they attack one another with the greatest impetuosity, and continue the pursuit with so much ardour and pertinacity, that they will fly into a room, where they continue the combat, which is concluded only by the flight of the vanquished and the loss of a few feathers. When the flowers are faded, they evince their vexation and anger by tearing off the petals, with which they strew the ground.

"These humming-birds cannot support the total deprivation of liquid honey for more than twelve or fourteen hours at the most*; and they frequently die from this cause in the autumn; when, if they have been detained by a late brood beyond the proper period of their departure, and the flowers are destroyed by early frosts, the elasticity of their wings is weakened by the want of nourishment. The movements of the bird are no longer executed with that velocity which holds it suspended over the blossom that contains its food. The more their want increases, the more their powers diminish; they frequently alight, they fly less swiftly, they rest themselves on the ground, languish, and die. Their young, when hatched late in the season, are exposed to this danger, and may frequently be met with in the autumn perishing in this way.

"The difficulty of obtaining these beautiful birds, without injuring their plumage, has given rise to the invention of several different modes of catching them. Some drown them by means of a syringe; others kill them with a pistol loaded with sand; and indeed, when very near to them, the explo

Audubon observes, that the humming-bird is insectivorous, and that it inserts its bill into the flowers in order to extract the minute insects that live in their interior, and thus relieves them from these enemies; and that they also catch many small flies while on the wing. He says, "The nectar or honey which they sip from the different flowers, being of itself insufficient to support them, is used more as if to allay their thirst."

ACCOUNT OF THE RED-THROATED MUMMING-BIRD.

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sion of the powder is sometimes sufficient to stun them and bring them to the ground. It scarcely need be observed, that even the very finest shot should not be used in the pursuit of these small birds, for a single grain would shatter them and leave only a wreck of their beauties. These plans are but ill adapted to their object, as water injures the feathers of the bird, and sand makes it fall to the ground. I have therefore had recourse to two other methods; I have employed with success the net called spider's web, with which I surrounded the shrubs at the distance of a foot or two. The bird cleaves the air with such rapidity that it has not time to perceive the net, and is thus easily caught. I have also made use of green gauze in the shape of a butterfly net; but this method requires much patience, and can only be employed on plants and small shrubs. The person must be carefully concealed; for although the bird will approach very near, it is not the less distrustful; and if any strange object should excite his suspicion, he quits the flower, rises about a foot above the plant, remains there perfectly stationary, examines the object which disturbs him, and when he has ascertained that his fear is well founded, he utters a cry and disappears. To have any degree of success in this pursuit, a little niche must be constructed as low as possible with plants and surrounding shrubs, from which the bird may be covered with the net, in the same way that a butterfly is caught.

"Lastly, having observed that these birds often perched upon the dead branches of shrubs,-and wishing to behold in the sun and on the living animal, all the beauty of a plumage resplendent with a thousand hues, the brilliancy of which is tarnished by the hand of death,-I inserted some small sticks into the flowers, upon which they perched. I had thus for a minute the pleasure of seeing them dart their tongue into the nectarbearing cup, to draw from it a liquor suited to the delicacy of their organs.

"This bird places its nest on trees and shrubs; the inside consists of the brown down of the sumac, and the outside is covered with lichens. The one which I have preserved was on a small branch of the red cedar. The male brings the materials, and the female arranges them; two eggs are laid of a size proportioned to that of the bird, and each parent sits alternately."

OBSERVATIONS ON SOME MOLLUSCA AND ZOOPHYTES, REGARDED AS THE CAUSES OF THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA.

[Translated from "Freycinet's Voyage autour du Monde."]

Ir is in places where the phænomena which assist in their production are constantly renewed, where floods of light and heat penetrate and warm the water, where electricity seems profusely diffused through every substance,-that myriads of animalculæ are, as it were, spontaneously produced. When a perfect calm succeeds to the light breezes which agitate the surface of the sea, it seems as if a magic wand animated the bosom of the waters, and that their constituent principles had assembled and joined together to produce life.

We have often contemplated this spectacle; it broke the monotony of calms, and diminished the ennui of long voyages. But no one is ignorant, that it is necessary to be initiated in the study of the secrets of Nature in order to appreciate her wonders; for these seas, so full of life to the observer, are inanimate and devoid of interest to the generality of men, who only regard the more striking objects.

It is chiefly in straits near the land, and in rather shallow places, that the animalculæ are produced in the greatest, numbers. In the Molluccas, for instance, one need only draw up a little water in a bucket in order to procure several varieties of them. Some are long and cylindrical; others circular and flattened. The greatest number are of a round form; these swim and twirl about with much activity, while those seem to consist simply of an immovable gelatinous mass. Sometimes the sea was covered with fibres, with minute filaments, or rather with a kind of dust apparently inanimate, but probably an organized body. It is difficult to form a conception of this productiveness; it equals if it does not exceed that which is going on upon earth.

Phosphorescence is a phænomenon which, although attached to many different animals, belongs peculiarly to the marine mollusca:-about this, much has been written, and it still leaves a vast field for conjecture; since, as regards the manner in which it is effected, every thing remains to be discovered.

Truly we may say, that we have observed this singular spectacle under all meridians, since we have passed under all; we have even beheld results, which no one has mentioned; and yet we must confess that we are not more advanced in a knowledge of the principle which produces phosphorescence than when we began to examine it ten years ago. Therefore, without aspiring to the honour of starting an hypo