TURRUCARES AND RIO GRANDE DE TARCOLES 375 



very inviting so that I did not carry it with me, the Tizate 

 was not clean, and two oranges, welcome as they were, did 

 not last long. I noticed two peculiar looking woodpeckers 

 on the road back to Cebadilla — almost white on most of the 

 body but with a patch of crimson on the front of the head 

 above the beak. 



Several times I walked westward from TurriJcares on the 

 tracks of the Pacific Railroad. The roadbed was inferior to 

 that from San Jose to Limon, the gauge often variable, and 

 In some places one rail visibly lower than the other. The 

 trains ran slowly and lurched from side to side. On August 

 16, four of us went a short distance beyond kilometer post 

 34, making many stops on the way. Near kilometer 33 

 the country on each side of the track was flat and wet, with 

 many plants of Mimosa asperata, peculiar in its method of 

 discharging Its seeds. It forms a cluster of five or six pods, 

 radiating from a common center. Each pod separates cross- 

 wise into sections holding one seed each, which shake apart 

 and fall from the pod as they dry; but the ribs forming the 

 longitudinal margins of the pod are left behind as the frame- 

 work out of which the seeds have dropped. The pods have 

 some short soft spines by which the sections adhere to the 

 fur, hair or clothing of passing animals or of man. 



I caught or observed three flying earwigs (Doru lineare) 

 this morning along the tracks; these insects are not often 

 seen on the wing. I kept one and turned one over to Pro- 

 fessor Tristan who was specially interested in the group. He 

 found the same species In maize between the stem and the 

 leaf-bases, so that the flying specimens doubtless came from 

 a corn-field In which they were abundant. 



Between kilometers 33 and 34 from San Jose the whole 

 country was covered with rounded or angular boulders one 

 to ten feet in diameter, which had weathered to a dark dull 

 brown or black color. In some places they were heaped on 



