THE CONDOR 
| Voi,. VII 
15S 
three species, were common, and in wet places grew large caladium-like plants 
whose immense leaves more than once sheltered me from the hard showers which 
sometimes caught me; for in such an event it was only necessary to sever the stem 
with my machete, sit upon a log or rock and hold the leaf over me, its size being 
such as to afford complete cover and shelter. 0 
As naturally would result from the difference in altitude, the birds of Coli- 
blanco were mostly different from those of Bonilla. Of toucans there was only one 
kind, the green Aulacorha mph us cceruleigula r is ; of trogons only T. puella and the 
Quetzal, here at the lower limit of its range. A nest of the latter was found, in a 
dead stump, some twelve feet from the ground, from which a young bird, full- 
fledged, was taken . h 
From Coliblanco a brief visit was made to a high potrero at the base of the 
ash-cone of Turrialba, at an altitude of 9000 feet. There everything was different, 
and it seemed as if the very climax of the beautiful in Nature was 
there manifested. Nothing I have ever seen elsewhere so much suggested the 
possibilities of Paradise, and short as was our visit I consider it alone worth the 
trip to Costa Rica. The air was cool and bracing as our finest October weather in 
the States; the several hundred acres comprising the potrero were like an immense, 
well-kept park, with long vistas through groves and clumps of magnificent trees over 
undulating lawns of vivid green cultivated grasses cropped close by the grazing 
cattle and studded with wild violets, buttercups and English daisies. But there 
was never a private or public park with such trees — so beautiful or varied in form 
and foliage, or so bedecked with flowers. I do not think it an exaggeration to say 
that every tree bore flowers, either of its own or of some climbing vine or epiphyte, 
while nearly all were further embellished by brightly colored bromeliads and 
other epiphytes, ferns, or orchids. To the right rose the cone of the volcano, cov- 
ered with dense chaparral, while to the left, at a greater distance but still near 
enough to enable every detail to be clearly seen, the long ridge-like mass of 
Irazu. In this beautiful park birds were far more numerous than I have ever seen 
them elsewhere, or at least they were more in evidence, for the clear open character 
of the place enabled one to see them at long distances. Large black robins with 
golden yellow bill and feet ( Merula nigrcscens) ran gracefully upon the green 
sward, and it was rarely if ever that we were not within hearing of the whir or 
twitter of hummingbirds, the most numerous of which was the beautiful Payiterpc 
insignis , remarkable for the fact that both sexes are equally brilliant in color. That 
truly royal bird the Quetzal was also common here, and, like every other species, 
very tame. For several minutes I watched a pair in a tree close by and could not 
shoot them — they were too beautiful. They could easily have been photographed 
but I had left my camera behind. I cannot express the reluctance with which I 
left this most beautiful place, even though it was our intention to return; but in 
this expectation we were disappointed, for soon after reaching Coliblanco the 
a Some of these large aroids are seen in the lower middle portion of the view accompanying this article ip. 155) 
Referring to the wonderful variety of plant-life here I will state as a matter of probable interest, that from a single 
moderate-sized stump in this potrero I gathered twenty-one distinct species of ferns! I am very sorry not to be able 
to present in this article one or more views from Bonilla, where the vegetation was even more remarkable than at 
Coliblanco, though almost wholly different, owing to the difference of several thousand feet in the elevation 
of the two places; but I was attacked by malarial fever (wholly unknown at Coliblanco and other high places) before 
I could get time to use the camera. 
b This young Quetzal, “Montezuma” by name, is a contented member of the aviary of Don Jose C. Zeledon at 
San Jose. 
c I should acknowledge here our obligations to Don Francisco Guiterrez, proprietor of the leeheria and potrero 
of Turrialba, and his son, Don Ramon Guiterrez, for their hospitality during our stay and a cordial invitation (which 
we were unfortunately prevented by a bad turn in the weather from accepting) to return and continue our col- 
lecting there. 
