The naturalist in Nicaragua : a narrative of a residence at the gold mines of Chontales; journeys in the savannahs and forests; with observations on animals and plants in reference to the theory of evolution of living forms . the canoe-men. At noon wereached the point where the Seripiqui, a river coming-down from the interior of Costa Rica, joins the SanJuan about thirty miles above Greytown. The Seri-piqui is navigable by canoes for about twenty milesfrom this point, and then commences a rough mountainmule-track to San Jose, the capital of Costa Eica. Wepaddled on all the afternoon with littl
The naturalist in Nicaragua : a narrative of a residence at the gold mines of Chontales; journeys in the savannahs and forests; with observations on animals and plants in reference to the theory of evolution of living forms . the canoe-men. At noon wereached the point where the Seripiqui, a river coming-down from the interior of Costa Rica, joins the SanJuan about thirty miles above Greytown. The Seri-piqui is navigable by canoes for about twenty milesfrom this point, and then commences a rough mountainmule-track to San Jose, the capital of Costa Eica. Wepaddled on all the afternoon with little change in theriver. At eight we anchored for the night, and althoughit rained heavily again, I was better prepared for it,and, coiling myself up under an umbrella beneath thetarpaulin, managed to sleep a little. i6 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. II. We started again before daylight, and at ten stoppedat a small clearing for breakfast. I strolled back alittle way into the gloomy forest, but it was not easy toget along on account of the undergrowth and numerousclimbing plants that bound it together. I saw one ofthe large olive-green and brown mot-mots {]\fomotiisonartii), sitting upon a branch of a tree, moving its. HEADS OF MOT-MOTS. long curious tail from side to side, until it was nearlyat right ans^les to its bodv. I afterwards saw otherspecies in the forests and savannahs of all have several characters in common, linkedtogether in a series of gradations. One of thesefeatures is a spot of black feathers on the breast. Insome species this is edged with blue, in others, as in Ch. IL] FORAGING ANTS. 17 the one mentioned above, these black feathers formonly a small black spot nearly hidden amongst therust-coloured feathers of the breast. Characters suchas these, very conspicuous in some species, shading offin others through various gradations to insignificance,if not extinction, are known by naturalists to occur innumerous genera; and so far they have only bee
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
