70 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



tin vasculum, and supplied him with sugar-cane. He ate 

 readily and his attitude when feeding on the cane is shown 

 in our photograph from life. He was very slow and pon- 

 derous in his movements and never made any effort to fly 

 when out of the box, but twice, at night, we were awakened 

 by the sound of his bumping against the inside of the vas- 

 culum, as if he were trying to ffy, accompanied by a hissing. 

 We learned nothing of the uses of his horns. He came to an 

 untimely end by chloroform and the autopsy was performed 

 at once. Two species of mites, a millimeter and six-tenths 

 of a millimeter long respectively, were found living on this 

 giant and were later described by Mr. Banks as new species 

 (of Celanopsis and of Hypoaspis). 



The squirrels in the Plaza were a great source of amuse- 

 ment. The common one (Sciurus adolphei dorsalis) is a 

 handsome little animal, very dark gray above, reddish- 

 tawny below and on the under surface of the tail, pale gray 

 on the cheeks and with extremely large black eyes. I 

 watched one trying green mangoes by nibbling one, finally 

 selecting and eating another, dropping down the green skin 

 and eating the hard pulp. Before this one was half eaten 

 it too was dropped and the squirrel was off to a third. 



As the country immediately around Cartago was all under 

 cultivation we did not see there any large wild mammals, 

 but on November i as we left the hotel door we saw two 

 boys carrying two small armadillos, about a foot long, which 

 they offered for sale. We stopped to look at the interesting 

 little creatures. The bands, twelve counting head and tail, 

 were still quite soft. Even the large ears were scaly and 

 stood up like a bat's. The claws were very strong, long and 

 curved. The boys said the armadillos ate earthworms and 

 no doubt they eat insects also. 



The English sparrow has not reached Costa Rica, the 

 bird most nearly taking its place being Brachyspiza capen- 



