264 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



cross by the car at that end, but if so he gave up the idea and 

 disappeared into the forest. 



A black cormorant was sitting on the rocks of the rapids 

 downstream but did not linger, although I did not actually 

 see him fly away. The river banks were lined with fairly 

 large trees whose branches, on the river side, overhung the 

 water for many feet; they were heavily loaded with epi- 

 phytes — ferns, Spanish moss and other bromeliads. Looking 

 down on the rocks at the very water's edge, I saw a basilisk 

 lizard {Basiliscus) perhaps a foot and a half long, with a long 

 conical projection on the top of its head and a fold of skin 

 along the back. As I stepped a little nearer to get a better 

 view, it disappeared in a twinkling behind a rock and per- 

 haps into the water. While returning to the railroad by the 

 grassy path a second and similar basilisk gave me a better 

 opportunity to examine it. The lizard was bright grass- 

 green in color, somewhat over a foot in length; its head was 

 produced upward in a conical fashion that gave it a most 

 grotesque appearance and there was a dorsal crest to its 

 body seemingly not fully elevated but plaited. When I 

 came very near it ran off into the underbrush. 



Some "bobos," fishes of delicious taste which I had pre- 

 viously eaten at Guapiles, were for sale at the Peralta Com- 

 missary on August 10, a negro having caught them in the 

 Reventazon with a net. The negroes present pointed out, 

 as characteristic of the bobo, a horny tubercle on the front 

 end of the middle line of the upper jaw. A few days later 

 Professor Alfaro gave me the technical name of the bobo 

 as Joturus pichardi; it is a member of the muliet family 

 (Mugilidae). 



Mr. Hess suggested that I go north along the tracks to 

 the Chiriqui(.^) River, whence, by a trail leading upstream, 

 I could reach another piece of forest. He had once followed 

 this trail on horseback as far as two "crater lakes" of which 



