16 The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
commence paddling up the river again. As the day broke 
the rain ceased, the mists cleared away, our spirits revived, 
and we forgot our discomforts of the night in admiration of 
the beauties of the river. The banks were hidden by a 
curtain of creeping and twining plants, many of which bore 
beautiful flowers, and the green was further varied here and 
there by the white stems of the cecropia trees. Now and 
then we passed more open spots, affording glimpses into the 
forest, where grew, in the dark shade, slender-stemmed palms 
and beautiful tree-ferns, contrasting with the great leaves of 
the Heliconie. At seven we breakfasted on a sand-bank, 
and got our clothes and blankets dried. There were numerous 
tracks of alligators, but it was too early to look for their eggs 
in the sand; a month later, in March, when the river falls, 
they are found in abundance, and eaten by the canoe-men. 
_ At noon we reached the point where the Seripiqui, a river 
coming down from the interior of Costa Rica, joins the San 
Juan about thirty miles above Greytown. The Seripiqui is 
navigable by canoes for about twenty miles from this point, 
and then commences a rough mountain mule-track to San 
José, the capital of Costa Rica. We paddled on all the 
afternoon with little change in the river. At eight we 
anchored for the night, and although it rained heavily again, 
I was better prepared for it, and, coiling myself up under an 
umbrella beneath the tarpaulin, managed to sleep a little. 
We started again before daylight, and at ten stopped at a 
small clearing for breakfast. I strolled back a little way 
into the gloomy forest, but it was not easy to get along on. 
account of the undergrowth and numerous climbing plants 
that bound it together. I saw one of the large olive-green 
and brown mot-mots (Momotus martit), sitting upon a 
branch of a tree, moving its long curious‘ tail from side to 
side, until it was nearly at right angles to its body. I after- 
wards saw other species in the forests and savannahs of 
Chontales. They all have several characters in common, 
linked together in a series of gradations. One of these 
features is a spot of black feathers on the breast. In some 
species this is edged with blue, in others, as in the one men- 
tioned above, these black feathers form only a small black 
spot nearly hidden amongst the rust-coloured feathers of 
the breast. Characters such as these, very conspicuous in 
