270 



OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



At noon we stopped for breakfast in a primeval forest with 

 rather thin underbrush. Many small scarab beetles {Can- 

 thon semiopacus) were resting in the hollows of leaves with 

 their Ijranclied antenn;e raised, waiting apparently for some 

 hint of an odor which should summon them to their mission 



Fig. 116. Shooting the R.\pids .\t Fltll Speed. 



of life — the depositing of their eggs in decaying flesh. Spin- 

 ning througli the aisles made by the giant columns of tree- 

 trunks, were curious translucent pin-wheels, and not until 

 wc captured one in tlie butterfly net did we realize we were 

 looking at the same attenuated forest dragon-flies (Mecislo- 

 gasicr sp.) which had deceived us so completely five years 

 ago in Mexico.* The movement of the long, narrow wings, 

 with the spot of white at the tips was, to the eye, a cir- 

 cular revolving whirl, with the needle-sizcd body trailing 



* Two Bird lovers in Mexico, pp. 239-241. 



