24 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



fields, sometimes swooping first in a low circle to drive away a band 

 of horses, passengers got on and off and much freight was loaded 

 and unloaded. The mail sack, boxes, bundles, and sacks of every de- 

 scription, a crated pig, a little dog in another box, my own field out- 

 fit — all these appeared at the different airports. 



In Liberia, called the "White City" because of its streets of white 

 sand, Dr. Valerio left us, and immediately I took up my investigation 

 of the birds of this region. The land here was fairly level, cut by 

 the Rio Liberia, a small, shallow stream of clear water, with rapid 

 current, and by sandy-bottomed quebradas that drain into this stream. 

 The end of the season of rains was near and many days were con- 

 tinuously clear. Storms came mainly in the afternoon and at night. 

 The air was cool and delightful as the sun rose in early morning but 

 by 10 or n o'clock the tropical heat drove birds to cover, so that 

 Aguilar and I found it best to return then to town. 



Parrots and parrakeets were here in abundance, crossing the sky 

 morning and evening in pairs or flocks, with strident screeching and 

 chattering. During the day I found them feeding in wild fruit 

 trees, sometimes in company with large-billed toucans. The woods 

 and old fields bordering the river were a fertile collecting ground, 

 and here I obtained a steadily mounting number of species of birds. 

 The white-headed laughing falcon called here in early morning, while 

 the petulant screams of smaller hawks came from nearer at hand. 

 Handsome racquet-tailed motmots sat near the cut-banks along the 

 stream, and eight or nine species of hummingbirds ranged in the 

 heavy shade, or about flowers in the open, according to their needs. 

 Howler monkeys roared their disapproval of my shooting, and almost 

 daily we saw deer within a mile of town. 



Through the more open areas were the great spreading trees called 

 Guanacastes, of the mimosa family {Pithecolobium sa/man), often 8 

 or io feet through, that grew with especial symmetry in the open 

 pastures. In these I found small woodpeckers, tanagers, the kiskadee 

 flycatcher, and its large-billed cousin, the boat-billed flycatcher. The 

 tiny beardless flycatcher (Caniptostoma) no larger than a kinglet 

 also ranged in the delicate foliage, with bright-colored euphonias. 

 chattering woodpeckers (Centurus), and occasional migrant warblers 

 from the north. 



Barn swallows circled over the open fields often in considerable 

 flocks, and at sunset flocks of Baltimore orioles and scissor-tailed fly- 

 catchers came into town to roost in groves of trees behind the 

 houses. These were all migrant friends from the United States. 



Trips by truck to the Rio Colorado 5 miles to the northwest were 

 always fruitful, as tanagers, cuckoos, sparrows, and other strange 



