HOME OF THE HUMMING BIRDS. 107 



from a tall palm stub near the house he poured out 

 his heart. My hill was the grand stand, my little 

 family the chief performers — at least the first — and 

 auditors in the surrounding forest took up the 

 chorus. 



From the valleys beneath arose an outcry as 

 though a whole barnyard of fowls had broken out at 

 once ; these were the " cockerricos " who rent the air 

 with harsh screams of " cokriko, cokriko, cokriko ! " A 

 shy and wary bird is the cokriko, and you may rest 

 assured that, however noisy he may be, his every 

 sense is on the alert. Many a time and oft, I stalked 

 him vainly before he became my capture. 



Up from the trees around came a loud, shrill 

 whistle, prolonged and deafening, like a steam whistle 

 in sound and intensity. This was from the cicada, 

 and its continuous shrilling presages the near ap- 

 proach of the rainy season. When first 1 heard it I 

 truly thought a locomotive was tearing through the 

 forest, and leaped from my tracks in great alarm. 

 These cicadse are quite large, and I have seen them 

 many times clinging to the bark of a cashew tree. I 

 have only heard the sound in the spring and early 

 summer, from April to August, and it is probably a 

 love call, as I have seen a cicada alone on a bare tree 

 trunk calling nervously, and looking later, when the 

 cry had ceased, found a second one in close company. 

 The loud shrilling seems to issue from the thoracic 

 region, and may be made by the insect rubbing the 

 wings together, as at that time the wings seem to be 

 but a filmy mist. Not alone in the morning, but at 



