370 Natural History Bulletin. 



Miscellaneous Notes. 

 Zoology. 



While the expedition was mainly a botanical one, a number 

 of zoological specimens were secured, and a few observations 

 were made which may be of interest. 



A disappointment was experienced in the comparative scar- 

 city of animal life in the jungles, the deep and oppressive 

 silence of which has already been alluded to. It is true that 

 in the deep forests one may occasionally come upon a band of 

 Howling Monkeys which make the woods resound with their 

 hoarse cries, or a parrot flying overhead may break the pro- 

 found silence with its harsh chatter, but after all, these are 

 exceptions, and one may often spend hours in these forests 

 and scarcely hear a sound of any hving thing. To find the 

 numerous chattering, noisy, gaudy representatives of animal 

 life, and for that matter the brightly colored representatives 

 of the plant kingdom, which are generally associated with the 

 tropics by the uninitiated, one must go to the more settled 

 districts, to the edges of the forests, to the vicinity of villages 

 and plantations. There, close to the habitations of man, one 

 will usually find the representatives of various animal groups 

 more numerous, and more striking than in the deepest, purest 

 virgin forests. 



A few brief notes on various groups of animals represented 

 in southern Nicaragua, on which observations were made, are 

 here presented: 



Mammalia. — But little attention was given to this class, and 

 but one specimen, the head and vocal apparatus of the Howl- 

 ing Monkey, was brought. On Ometepe two rather common 

 species of Monkeys, a small Deer, a Le;pus, and a Scturus 

 were the only Mammals observed, and along the lower San 

 Juan an additional species of Monkey, a Peccary, and a Tapir 

 were seen. The cries of other species were heard in the for- 

 ests at night, but no effort was made to trace them. 



Aves. — This class was likewise neglected, no specimens 



