106 The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
Always when in circling round it came in sight of the seed- 
pods down it pounced, alighted near them, and recommenced 
its quest on foot. I was surprised at its perseverance, and 
thought it would have given up the search; not so, however, 
for it returned at least half-a-dozen times, and seemed to get 
angry, hurrying about with buzzing wings. At last it 
stumbled across its prey, seized it eagerly, and as there was 
nothing more to come back for, flew straight off to its nest, 
without taking any further note of the locality. Such an 
action is not the result of blind instinct, but of a thinking 
mind; and it is wonderful to see an insect so differently 
constructed using a mental process similar to that of man. 
It is suggestive of the probability of many of the actions of 
insects that we ascribe to instinct being the result of the 
possession of reasoning powers. 
Where the tramway terminated at San Benito mine, the 
valley had greatly contracted in width, and the stream, 
excepting in time of flood, had dwindled to a little rill. A 
small rough path, made by the miners to bring in their 
timber, continued up the brook, crossing and recrossing it. 
The sides of the valley were very steep, and covered with 
trees and undergrowth. The foliage arched over the water, 
forming beautiful little dells, with small, clear pools of water. 
One of these was a favourite resort of humming-birds, who 
came there to bathe, for these gem-like birds are very fre- 
quent in their ablutions, and I spent many a half-hour in 
the evenings leaning against a trunk of a tree that had fallen 
across the stream four or five yards below the pool, and 
watching them. At all times of the day they occasionally 
came down, but during the short twilight there was a crowd 
of bathers, and often there were two or three at one time 
hovering over the pool, which was only three feet across, 
and dipping into it. Some would delay their evening toilet 
until the shades of night were thickening, and it became 
almost too dark to distinguish them from my stand. Three 
species regularly frequented the pool, and three others 
occasionally visited it. The commonest was the Thaluranta 
venusta (Gould), the male of which is a most beautiful bird— 
the front of the head and shoulders glistening purple, the 
throat brilliant light green, shining in particular lights like 
polished metal, the breast blue, and the back dark green. 
