LOWER NEIGHBORS OF CART AGO 155 



On February 28 Utrlcularias and Limnanthemum humboldtia- 

 num were blooming freely in the laguna and "cirujanos" 

 were flying over it. "Cirujano" (surgeon) is the Costa 

 Rican name of one of the rail-like birds {Jacana spinosa or 

 Asarcia variabilis) about eight inches in length, with glossy 

 greenish-black head and neck, reddish-brown body acquir- 

 ing something of a purplish tinge below, and pale lemon 

 wings edged with brown. Each long black leg has four toes, 

 each of which is two and three-quarters inches long. The 

 most remarkable external feature is a sharp-pointed, pale 

 yellow, horny spine (carpal spur) one-quarter inch long, on 

 the front edge of each wing near its junction with the body. 

 Such spines are possessed by a number of birds and are re- 

 garded as weapons,^ but we know of no observations on their 

 use by our "surgeons." 



Orosi itself was a rambling, unkempt village with an 

 unusually large, grassy, weedy plaza and a single-towered, 

 blue-washed church, which is said to be the second oldest 

 in Costa Rica and to date from early colonial times. It lies 

 in a rich coffee district with several beneficios near it, and 

 the surrounding country is most beautiful, but did not prove 

 productive for our purposes, so that we did not visit it regu- 

 larly or frequently. On October 26, 1909, A. rode there 

 with a party from the hotel, chiefly to see the great cataract, 

 which was not seen, however, as the guide proved entirely 

 ignorant of the road. There are in fact two large cataracts 

 near Orosi, one of which we saw on February 28 from the top 

 of the Jocosal and which we afterwards located as being on 

 the road from Paraiso to Cachi. The other, much larger, 

 lies deep in the forest several hours south of Orosi. The 

 small boy who acted as guide had apparently never heard of 

 either of them. I noticed on this day that great quantities 



' In the article by F. A. Lucas In the Report of the U. S. National Museum 

 for 1893, pp. 653 et seq. 



