WEST AND NORTH OF CART AGO 95 



is probably a little too high.) One of the reasons for making 

 this particular trip was the magnificent view of the mountains 

 from this potrero, for which we carried the whole photo- 

 graphic outfit. In this we were grievously disappointed, for 

 even when we started the mountains were not perfectly 

 clear and we could see, in our successive glimpses, how they 

 were misting over. By the time we reached the potrero 

 the Aguacate Mountains had disappeared, Poas was almost 

 invisible and Barba so faint that I could not focus on it in 

 the camera screen, while even the pass of La Palma was dis- 

 appointingly misty. 



On the return we had some fine opportunities to watch the 

 curious scissor-tail fly-catchers {Muscivora forficata) which 

 perched on the telegraph wires, and made short erratic 

 flights after insects. Both perching and flying, their ex- 

 travagantly long forked tails were opened and shut con- 

 stantly with a jerky motion and also moved up and down in 

 the ordinary fashion of birds in balancing. 



Through the western part of Cartago flows a small stream, 

 the Reventado, which arises high up on Irazu in the old 

 crater or Laguna del Reventado, and eventually empties 

 into the Agua Caliente River in the bottom of the valley. 

 For much of its course it is a rapid, rocky, brawling little 

 stream, its bed full of boulders. The part near and above 

 Cartago we always called the "Paltothemis River" because 

 the showy, swift-flying Paltothemis lineatipes was very 

 common there and seemed to rule the stream. This hand- 

 some dragonfly has a wing-spread of three and a half inches 

 and a conspicuous red body one and seven-eighths inches 

 long, and the habit of each individual's patrolling a certain 

 limited bit of territory was well marked and easily observed. 

 It was often amusing to see how quickly an interloper was 

 attacked and driven off by the dragonfly in possession. A 

 smaller dragonfly, Hetcsrina cruentaia, was also abundant 



