TURRULBA AND PERALTA 255 



natus, the "curre grande," with this tip "deep purplish 

 blood-red," is sixteen to twenty-four inches in length. 



Not only the toucan thus justified my going out for this 

 anteprandial walk, but also at the first little river north of 

 Peralta station I took the only specimen of Hetcsrina miniata 

 found anywhere in this locality, and probably the highest 

 elevation (1075 feet) from which this species has yet been 

 reported, as it seems to be chiefly a lowlander. Like almost 

 all members of the genus Hetcsrina, the male has a beautiful 

 carmine spot at the base of each of its four narrow, trans- 

 parent wings. This carmine is accompanied by almost no 

 brown along its front edge, in contrast to the condition 

 existing in the ubiquitous Hetcerina cruentata. Moreover, 

 miniata male has a carmine spot on the tip of each hind 

 wing (where cruentata male is edged with brown) and only 

 one pair of clasping organs at the hind end of the body 

 (the lower pair existing in cruentata being represented merely 

 by stumps). Hetcerina is an exclusively American dragonfly 

 and is richer in species in the tropics than in the temperate 

 zones, although one member reaches Canada. 



There were about half a dozen small cabins near Peralta 

 station occupied by Jamaican negroes, and some railroad 

 buildings, but noother human habitations. Behind the latter 

 extended a Y-shaped track to enable locomotives to reverse 

 their heading. At the end of the stem of the Y was a slow- 

 moving stream called simply " laguna." Mr. Hess having told 

 me of this as a likely place for me, I went there on August 8 

 about noon. Two women were washing clothes at the laguna, 

 so I went into the low woods just beyond, which consisted 

 of small trees, arums, ferns, heliconias and numerous vines 

 or creepers. I had hardly entered when I caught a medium- 

 sized dragonfly, of an apparently new genus allied to Cora. 

 Nearby I found a pair of Palcsmnema dragonflies, likewise 

 new, with extremely slender bodies (two inches long in the 



