THE BANANA RIVER COUNTRY 305 



specimens. In the hope that the light would improve we 

 waited an hour at one place, but in vain. While there, 

 humming-birds came to look at us and to bathe. Three 

 different species were represented at one time or another. 

 One, the largest, had a markedly forked tail and a long 

 curved beak. A second, the smallest, was almost entirely 

 a pale reddish-brown. The handsomest was deep metallic 

 blue with a patch of paler greenish-blue at the throat; this 

 was the "Costa Rican Wood Nymph" {Thalurania colom- 

 bica venusta). As many travelers have noted, they were 

 quite fearless, approaching to within a few feet of us. The 

 blue one bathed repeatedly before us, retiring to a low 

 branch after each dip to shake its feathers. 



There were many tracks leading down to this creek which 

 Mr. Sullivan pointed out to me as those of the "mountain 

 cow" or tapir. A large log which had fallen across the creek 

 about eight feet above the water was a resting place for bats 

 of moderate size, half a dozen being disturbed by the waving 

 of my net as I tried to flush some insects that might be lurk- 

 ing in the neighboring vegetation. 



As the morning of November 7 was bright, sunny and hot 

 I decided to try Agua Buena Creek again. The trolley 

 was not available and a horse not very useful so I set out 

 on foot across the banana fields. Parts of Philadelphia North 

 and Holanda Farms through which I passed had been 

 abandoned owing to the poor quality of the fruit. These 

 parts were in consequence much overgrown and progress 

 over them was rather tiresome. 



Every morning during my week In this region I frequently 

 met small flocks of moderate-sized dragonflies along the 

 railroad tracks, these flocks separated from each other by 

 intervals of a hundred yards or even less. The insects usually 

 flew at such a height above the ground as to be beyond the 

 reach of my net, say fifteen to twenty feet. But this morn- 



