Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v1.djvu/103

 (Parra Jacana), a waterfowl having very long legs and toes, which give it the appearance of walking on stilts, as it stalks about, striding from one water-lily leaf to another. I was surprised to find no coleopterous insects on the aquatic plants. The situation appeared to be as favourable for them as possibly could be. In England such a richly-mantled pool would have yielded an abundance of Donaciæ, Chrysomelæ, Cassidæ, and other beetles; here I could not find a single specimen. Neither could I find any water-beetles; the only exception was a species of Gyrinus, about the same size as G. natator, the little shining whirligig-beetle of Europe, which was seen in small groups in shady corners, spinning round on the surface of the water precisely as its congener does in England. The absence of leaf-eating beetles on the water plants, I afterwards found was general throughout the country. A few are found on large grasses, and Marantaceous plants in some places, but these are generally concealed in the sharp folds of the leaves, and are almost all very flat in shape. I, therefore, conclude that the aquatic plants in open places in this country are too much exposed to the sun's heat to admit of the existence of leaf-eating beetles.

Larry told me the Indian names, and enumerated the properties of a number of the forest trees. One of these was very interesting—viz., the Jutahí, which yields the gum copal, called by the natives Jutahí-síca. There are several species of it, as appears at once from