76 Naturalist at Large 



in Bolivia, which we had not been able to preserve as a 

 specimen and which was not very efficiently caged. It es- 

 caped in our room in the hotel, rushed pell-mell out to the 

 balcony directly over the front door, and plunged over- 

 board — landing in the midst of one of those conclaves of 

 city fathers who always appear to be discussing something 

 very important. My unpopularity for a time was un- 

 bounded. 



It was a bitter disappointment that limitations of time, 

 steamboat accommodations available, and other circum- 

 stances prevented our going to Cuzco. Perhaps we were 

 foolish not to have thrown up everything else and made the 

 trip, but the raihroad had been laid recently and had a way 

 of sinking down along the stretches of boggy land. We 

 were simply cowardly about it and missed a visit which I 

 have regretted a thousand times. Of course Arequipa was 

 charming, the mountains glorious, the vegetation exciting 

 to a naturalist, and the traveling crescentic sand dunes 

 called Medanos seen about halfway to MoUendo extraordi- 

 narily arresting. 



One little event occurred at Lima which is perhaps worth 

 recording. Our room was on that side of the old Hotel 

 Maury directly across from one of the towers of the great 

 cathedral. One evening I said to Rosamond, "Those are 

 awfully funny-looking bats going in and out of that hole 

 in the tower across the street." We stood there, leaning on 

 the railing of the little balcony of our room, watching 

 them, when all of a sudden, by the greatest good fortune, 

 one of the bats detached itself from its companions and 

 flew directly into our room. We slammed the doors and 

 got it. It proved to be Amorphochilus schnabeU, a bat which 



