114 ^ YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



digging for Indian relics, brought us a stone image, a piece 

 of pottery and a small jade celt from graves which he had 

 recently excavated near Sabanilla. The image is of a stand- 

 ing man, broken off above the knees, the lower parts of the 

 legs having evidently been lost long ago and not in the recent 

 excavation. The head bears a sort of double-crowned head- 

 dress and has a muzzle like a bat's. The arms are akimbo, 

 the hands being placed on the front of the belly and between 

 them is an ornament represented as suspended from a cord 

 which passes around the neck. Around the hips is carved 

 some sort of garment, possibly feather-work. The piece 

 of pottery is a shallow circular dish supported on three legs, 

 each of which probably represents a tapir's head, and is 

 hollow; a small loose ball of clay inside makes each leg a 

 rattle. The bowl of the dish is decorated in a crude symmet- 

 rical pattern of red and yellow and has a single animal's 

 head in high relief on the outside. 



Cot, a village a few miles to the southeastward of Tierra 

 Blanca, was connected with it by a single strand of telegraph 

 wire which furnished an easily followed guide. Going this 

 way on July 14, I came to a promising-looking small stream, 

 which I explored for dragonflies but without success, ob- 

 taining only a few little Diptera. A little farther on, the road 

 was bordered with flowering guitites and here too were many 

 humming-birds. Across the fields to the northeast was a 

 large house of a style of architecture very un-Costa Rican, 

 having a tall round tower at one end and some other eleva- 

 tion at the other. It was the residence and dairy farm of 

 Don Leopoldo Peralta; the house had a fine situation and 

 must command a beautiful view. The sky was very threat- 

 ening on this day and relatively few insects were flying, 

 but among them was a handsome yellow and reddish-brown 

 bumble bee {Bombus ephippiatus) ; it was called here el rey 

 de las abejas, king of the bees. 



