3926 The Zoologist — April, 1874. 



motto, when he mates so distinct and positive a confession of faith, 

 it would be uncourteous to ignore what he announces as the object 

 of his book, and cowardly to refrain from expressing dissent if 

 I cannot cordially agree with him. 



Mr. Belt is a traveller; this also is patent from his own con- 

 fession ; he has visited many countries, has reposed under many 

 suns ; he is still, like the swallow, on the wing, for he tells his 

 readers that when they receive his work " he will probably have 

 turned his face homeward again, and for weeks be speeding across 

 the Siberian steppes, wrapped in furs, listening to the sleigh-bells 

 and wondering how his book has sped." " It is full of theories," 

 he continues, and he adds, "he trusts not unsupported by facts." 

 With these latter I have principally to deal, and happily they 

 largely preponderate. I need scarcely say that Central America is 

 the scene of the labours, and that the " Siberian steppes" are yet 

 in the future. At present he treats only of Nicaragua ; let us 

 accompany him; we shall find him a most agreeable companion. 

 Easy to read, pleasant to listen to ; we skim his pages with the 

 rapidity of a humming-bird ; let us stop a moment to gaze on these 

 beautiful beings. Let us visit their bathing-place. 



" The foliage arched over the water, forming beautiful little dells, with 

 Email, clear pools of water. One of these was a favourite resort of humming- 

 birds, who came there to bathe, for these gem-like birds are very frequent 

 in their ablutions, and I spent many a half-hour iu the evenings leaning 

 against a trunk of a tree that had fallen across the stream some four or five 

 yards below the pool, and watching them. At all times of the day they 

 occasionally came down, but during the short twilight there was a mass of 

 bathers, and often there were two or three at one time hovering over the 

 pool, which was only three feet across, and dipping iuto it. Some would 

 delay their evening toilet until the shades of night wex'e thickening, and it 

 became almost too dark to distinguish them from my stand. Three species 

 regularly frequented the pool, and three othei-s occasionally visited it. The 

 commonest was the Thalurauia veuusta of Gould, the male of which is a 

 most beautiful bird, — the front of the head and shoulder glistening purple, 

 the throat brilliant light green, shiuing in particular lights like polished 

 metal, the breast blue, and the back dark green. It was a beautiful sight 

 to see this bird hovering over the pool, turning from side to side by quick 

 jerks of its tail, now showing its throat a gleaming emerald, now its shoulders 

 a glistening amethyst, then darting beneath the water, and rising instantly, 

 throw off a shower of spray from its quivering wings, and again fly up to an 

 overhanging bough and commence to preen its feathers. All humming- 



