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274
NOTES OF A BOTANIST
bed, looking like a growth of seedlings. I have not observed the
same peculiarity in any other Cinchona.
I proceed now to give some account of the other indigenous
inhabitants of the Red Bark woods, animal and vegetable.
The Andine Bear, chiefly inhabiting the middle wooded
region, descends to the lower limit of the Red Bark. On the
eastern side of the Andes it rarely goes as low as 3000 feet.
The Jaguar (Fclis onca\ chiefly inhabiting the plain, does not
yet seem to have climbed as high as Limon, but at Tarapoto, in
the Andes of Maynas, it was abundant up to more than 3000 feet
elevation. The Puma or Leon (Felis concolor) exists not only in
the plain but throughout the wooded slopes of the Andes ;
it is
only too abundant in the roots of the Cordillera, and I have seen
its footsteps on recent snow at a height of 13,000 feet on the high
mountains to the eastward of Riobamba. "Puma" is the Indian
generic name for every sort of tiger, but the Spanish colonists
limit it to the red tiger, and call the spotted jaguar "tigre." Bears
never troubled our hut, but we had two nocturnal visits from the
puma. On one of these occasions the puma seized and was carry-
ing off a little dog, but a very large and fine black dog sprang on
the puma and forced him to let go his hold. . . . The screams
of an animal seized by a tiger are about the most doleful sounds
one ever hears in the forest, and after being once heard their
cause can never be mistaken.
The Wild Pig (Peccary) frequently ascends to Limon, where
there are also two or three smaller pachyderms.
Two sorts of Monkeys are common, one of them almost as
noisy as the howling monkey, but of a different genus. I do not
know of any monkey which ascends to the temperate region of
the Andes.
A pretty red-headed Parrot, so small that it might be taken for
a paroquet, arrived in immense flocks about the end of July and
took up its summer residence in the Red Bark woods. The same
species abounds in the valley of Alausi, where it makes sad havoc
of the maize crops, and ascends by day to 8500 feet, but always
descends to Puma-cocha to roost. Along with the parrots came
Toucans of two species.
Snakes are very frequent, and some of them venomous.
Limon seems to be the highest point to which the Equis ascends,
a large and deadly snake which is a great pest in the plains of
Guayaquil ;
it takes its name from being marked with crosses (like
the letter "x") all along the back.
Butterflies I have rarely seen in greater number, and they
include at least four species of those large blue butterflies
(probably species of Morpho) which, on the eastern side, are
seldom seen above the hot region. Cockroaches, too, ascend