3IO A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



terns, in the form of spots, or longitudinal bands, irregu- 

 larly and more rarely symmetrically. The upper or lower 

 parts may be black, almost uniform, or pink with scarcely 

 a trace of black. In some of the most aberrant colour-va- 

 riations the ground-colour is grayish, and the yellow bands 

 are edged with black; in others the colours assume a retic- 

 ulated pattern; and, finally, specimens occur of a brownish- 

 olive, mottled and dotted with darker, the abdomen in 

 these being yellow with some Irregular black linear figures." 

 A third species, of about the size of the red one, was black 

 with a narrow yellow stripe along each edge of the back; it 

 may have been Hylodes rhodopis. All three species oc- 

 curred both in forest and In banana land. After handling 

 them I could not detect any disagreeable odor on my fingers. 

 I killed a couple of the red frogs and one of the blue and 

 black kind in the cyanide bottle and put them Into separate 

 bottles of alcohol, but the red ones lost their red after two 

 days; the blue and black species retained the colors much 

 better. 



On November 8 the trolley took me to Bearesem East 

 Farmhouse, on the left bank of the Banana River. Mr. 

 Veitch gave me the etymology of the scriptural-sounding 

 name "Bearesem" as follows: before the farms were laid 

 out there existed hereabouts a Banana River Saw Mill, usu- 

 ally referred to as B. R. S. M. When the time came to 

 name two of these farms some one devised their present 

 names by spelling out these initials Be-ar-es-em, now pro- 

 nounced "Beresem." In advance of my arrival at Beare- 

 sem East Farmhouse, Mr. Veitch had arranged by tele- 

 phone for my use of a rowboat belonging to Mr. Brandon, 

 mandador of the farm. He in his turn procured two ne- 

 groes to do the rowing and also asked permission to accom- 

 pany me for part of the way. 



The Banana River from Bearesem East Farmhouse to its 



