the plated soles, by quick muscular action, exhausting and
admitting air alternately. The 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. Those found in houses are small; but 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 these 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 forefeet and snouts around the roots of
herbage, searching for insect larvae. 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. 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