Vol. XXV] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 2IQ 



the finca (farm). This all sounded reasonable enough if 

 the man had not been eating, and so I inquired: "If one, why 

 not another." For a moment he seemed confused, but with 

 a wave of the hand and a bow (the Spanish way of dismiss- 

 ing a troublesome question) he answered: "It is too early 

 for ladies." 



I felt that I would better go hungry than to insist in the 

 face of such gallant sentiments but my bibliophile friend ap- 

 peared. She knows the ways of the country, the language, 

 and best of all has a fund of compliments that even put a 

 Spanish gentleman to shame, and like magic the breakfast 

 appeared oranges, bread, hot milk, and even pan dulce 

 (sweet biscuit.) 



The stars were still shining as I walked through the long 

 quiet streets, lined with adobe houses, all one-story, and rich 

 in Moorish tints of yellow and pink and azure blue. The sun 

 was only just warming up the hillsides when I came into the 

 open country. The road was cut through the hills and on 

 both sides the land rose quickly into a rough foothill region, 

 sparsely covered with trees and flowery bushes. On the first 

 rise there were scattered pines, and in the direction of the 

 city I could see the perfect cones of the volcanoes. The air 

 was fresh and invigorating, and I spent a wonderful three 

 hours on that warm hillside. There was a bush covered with 

 blossoms that looked like our red pentstemons literally full of 

 humming birds and a tree, which for want of a better name, 

 I called the Senecio tree, swarming with bees ; and there were 

 birds very like our Baltimore Oriole, but with heavier bills, 

 eating the berries from a Solanum. On the larger trees, I 

 could hear the insistent drumming of woodpeckers, and oc- 

 casionally I caught a glimpse of one as it flew from tree to 

 tree, a brown-speckled bird with a gleam of azure when it 

 flew. Indian men and women were preparing bundles of 

 wood and passed me now and then with a "I'.uenos dias, 

 Senora." A small boy came down from the pine ridge to 

 try his English upon me. He had once had a little English, 

 at a school in Guatemala City, at least so I gathered, and he 



