40 PHYSICAL FEATURES ETC. 
The several hundred acres composing the ‘potrero’ resembled an immense well 
kept park, with long vistas through groves and clumps of magnificent trees on 
undulating grassy slopes, cropped closely by the grazing cattle. On the right rose the 
cone of the volcano, covered with dense ‘chaparral, or bush of evergreen oaks, 
while to the left the long ridge-like mass of Irazu was plainly visible. : 
Mr. Ridgway made an ascent of this volcano, about 11,500 feet. The forest, of 
which but little remains, consists chiefly of oaks and differs widely from that of Poas 
and Turrialba. Higher up and close to the ash-cone the trees become scarce and 
scrubby, and finally only a growth of stunted Vaccinium-like shrubs exist. 
It is remarkable that in Costa Rica at least 700 species and subspecies of 
birds have been found. Dr. Outram Bangs, when alluding in the ‘ Auk’ (1907) 
to the Costa Rican collections made by Mr. Underwood, remarks that the extensive 
bird-fauna of this small country, scarcely larger than the State of Florida, is due 
to the fact that the Central American forms extend to the Atlantic lowlands, while 
those from Panama and the south go up the Pacific slopes, separated only by the 
range of high mountains. 
An account of the Costa Rican Odonata, their larval forms and their habits, is 
given by Dr. Calvert in the ‘ Entomological News’ for July 1910. He and his wife 
remained in the vicinity of Cartago for a year, making collections of Odonata as well 
as of terrestrial molluscs, annelids, araneids, orthoptera, microdiptera, coleoptera, and 
lepidoptera to a smaller extent, but they were hurried away by the severe and frequent 
earthquakes which finally destroyed the town in May 1910. 
PANAMA. 
This State—or Republic, as it must now be called—comprises the neck of land 
extending from Costa Rica to Colombia, an area equal in extent to about two-thirds 
the size of England and Wales, and forming the most southern country dealt with in 
the ‘ Biologia.’ Very little, however, of the Isthmus of Darien, the land south-east of 
the Canal, has been visited by collectors. The main chain of the Cordillera decreases 
greatly in height towards the City of Panama, and between that place and Colon, where 
the railway and Canal traverse the country, the elevation falls to less than 300 feet. 
Salvin crossed by rail on more than one occasion, and spent some time collecting near 
the Station of Obispo, where he obtained a good many specimens ; but Enrique Arcé 
and Mr. Champion were specially employed in Chiriqui, Arcé subsequently proceeding 
to Veraguas where he remained for several years. 
The rivers, taken as a whole, are unimportant, but the Chagres with its tributary the 
Obispo attains formidable dimensions in the wet season, overflowing j 
inundating a large area. ia eat tees Ares 
The district immediately adjacent to the Canal has recently been described by Mr. A. 
