412 NICARAGUA. 



palms festooned and clustered with gaily-coloured 

 bind-weeds, shadowed a little basin which collected 

 the current of a spring that ran dashing and spark- 

 ling from the rocks. The fountain was always cool, 

 for it was constantly refreshed from the mountain. 

 The sun's rays played within the foliage ; and the 

 Cayman lay on the sunny waters, indulging his soli- 

 tary passion in dreamy quietness. The nightly dews 

 dripping from the herbage, and the oozy rivulet 

 winding among the shrubs, tempted the frogs at 

 nightfall within his prowl ; for every morning saw 

 the putrid food of the previous day devoured, and 

 fresh carcases mangled and torn and stuffed into the 

 crevices of the pond, and fresh pieces of meat in the 

 Cayman's mouth, to afford him the imaginative en- 

 joyment of holding a struggling victim between his 

 teeth while he quietly rested afloat and killed it. 



" When I was looking on at the skinning of the 

 Crocodile, I related the foregoing among other 

 traits of instinct to the Mosquitan Consul, General 

 M'Chrysty, who was at this time a guest at the 

 King's House. He mentioned to me that this ex- 

 plained what he had frequently seen on the Lake 

 of Nicaragua. There he had observed the Caymans 

 throw up into the air fresh-captured fish, which 

 they afterwards caught in their mouth, and then 

 threw up again. This they continued to do several 

 times. This was another way of killing prey. It 

 would be labour in vain to endeavour to drown a 

 fish ; the Cayman therefore killed it by keeping it in 

 the air. This incident had been mentioned to me 

 before, but the object of it was not clearly made out. 

 I now see that it was another application of instinct 



