Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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If The Hibernal
Lethargy Be Observed, Both In Cold-Blooded And In Hot-Blooded Animals,
We Shall Be Less Surprised To Learn, That These Two Classes Furnish
Alike Examples Of A Summer-Sleep.
In the same manner as the crocodiles
of South America, the tanrecs, or Madagascar hedgehogs, in the midst
of the torrid zone, pass three months of the year in lethargy.
On the 25th of March we traversed the smoothest part of the steppes of
Caracas, the Mesa de Pavones. It is entirely destitute of the corypha
and moriche palm-trees. As far as the eye can reach, not a single
object fifteen inches high can be discovered. The air was clear, and
the sky of a very deep blue; but the horizon reflected a livid and
yellowish light, caused no doubt by the quantity of sand suspended in
the atmosphere. We met some large herds of cattle, and with them
flocks of birds of a black colour with an olive shade. They are of the
genus Crotophaga,* and follow the cattle. (* The Spanish colonists
call the Crotophaga ani, zamurito (little carrion vulture - Vultur aura
minuta), or garapatero, the eater of garaparas, insects of the Acarus
family.) We had often seen them perched on the backs of cows, seeking
for gadflies and other insects. Like many birds of these desert
places, they fear so little the approach of man, that children often
catch them in their hands. In the valleys of Aragua, where they are
very common, we have seen them perch upon the hammocks on which we
were reposing, in open day.
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