Return to Santo Domingo.
The birds of Chontales.
The insects of Chontales.
Mimetic forms.
Departure from the mines.
Nicaragua as a field for emigration.
Journey to Greytown.
Return to England.
HAVING finished our business at Masaya, we rode back to Granada on
the evening of the second day, and the next morning took a passage
in a fine steamboat that Mr. Hollenbeck, of Greytown, had placed on
the lake to convey passengers and goods between Granada and San
Carlos, at the head of the river San Juan. We arrived at San Ubaldo
at two o'clock, and found our mules safe but foot-sore, through
travelling over the rocky hills from Santo Claro. The San Jose
plains were in a dreadfully muddy state, and for five miles we went
plunging through the swamps. Most of the mules fell several times,
and we had great difficulty in getting them up again. We passed two
travellers with their mules up to their girths in mud, and
incapable of extricating themselves, but could not help them, as we
dared not allow ours to stand, or they would stick fast also. We
had met, at San Ubaldo, the son of Dr. Seemann, on his way home to
England. His pack-mule had stuck fast in the plains the night
before, and he had passed the night sitting on his boxes, half sunk
in the mud, and attacked by myriads of mosquitoes that had covered
his hands, face, and neck with blisters.
It was two hours after dark before we got across the weary plains.
We found shelter for the night at a small hut on their border,
where, for a consideration, the occupants gave up to us their
mosquito curtains and stretchers, and sat up themselves. I suppose
in such situations people get used to the mosquitoes, but to us
they were intolerable. They buzzed around us and settled on our
hands and face, if the former were not incessantly employed driving
them off. Those of our party who had no curtains had a lively time
of it. A gentleman of colour, from Jamaica, who was returning to
the mines after escorting young Mr. Seemann to the port, and who
could find no place to rest in, excepting an old hammock, kept his
long arms going round like a windmill, every now and then wakening
every one up with a loud crack, as he tried to bring his flat hand
down on one of his tormentors. A mosquito, however, is not to be
caught, even in the dark, in such a way. It holds up its two hinder
legs as feelers; the current of air driven before a descending blow
warns it of the impending danger, and it darts off to one side, to
renew its attack somewhere else. The most certain way to catch them
in the dark is to move the outstretched finger cautiously towards
where one is felt, until a safe striking distance is reached. But
what is the use of killing one when they are in myriads? None
whatever, excepting that it is some occupation for the sleepless
victim. The black gentleman was a thinker and a scholar, and used
to amuse himself at the mines by writing letters addressed to Mr.
Jacob Elam, Esquire (himself), in which he informed himself that he
had been left legacies of ten, twenty, or thirty thousand pounds, a
few thousand more or less costing nothing. Pondering during that
weary night over the purpose of creation, he startled me about one
in the morning with the question, "Mr. Belt, sir, can you tell me
what is the use of mosquitoes?"
"To enjoy themselves and be happy, Jacob."
"Ah, sir! if I was only a mosquito!" said Jacob, as he came down
with another fruitless whack.
At the first cock-crow we were up, and as the cheerful dawn lighted
up the east, we were in our saddles, and the miseries of the night
Were but the jests of the morning. The mules even seemed to be
eager to leave that dismal swamp, where malaria hung in the air,
and mosquitoes did their best to drive mankind away. The dry
savannahs were before us, our hearts were young as the morning, the
tormenting spirits of the night had flown away with the darkness,
and jest and banter enlivened the road. We reached Acoyapo at nine
o'clock; my good friend Don Dolores Bermudez lent me a fresh mule,
and, riding all day, I reached Santo Domingo in the evening.
I have little more of interest to relate. Years had sped on at
Santo Domingo; and the time approached when I should be set free
from the worries and responsibilities attending the supervision of
gold-mines, the products of which were just at that tantalising
point, on the verge between profit and loss, that made their
superintendence a most irksome and anxious duty. The difficulty of
the task was vastly increased by the capital of the company having
been originally wasted in the erection of machinery that proved to
be useless; so that financial questions constantly retarded the
completion of the works. This book has not been written, however,
to tell the story of the struggles of a mining engineer; and I turn
aside with pleasure from this slight digression to say what little
more I have to tell of my natural history experiences.
I did not, until near the conclusion of my stay, commence
collecting the skins of birds, contenting myself with watching and
noting their habits. I obtained the skins of ninety-two species
only; but small as this collection was, it proved an important
addition to the knowledge of the bird-fauna of Nicaragua. The
eminent ornithologist, Mr. Osbert Salvin, published in the "Ibis"
for July 1872 a list of seventy-three species that I had up to that
time sent to England. Altogether, only one hundred and fifty
species, including those that I had collected, were known from
Nicaragua. Fragmentary as our knowledge is, it is sufficient, in
Mr. Salvin's opinion, to indicate, with tolerable accuracy, to
which of the two sub-provinces of the Central American fauna the
forest region of Chontales belongs. The birds I sent to England
proved nearly conclusively that the Costa-Rican sub-province
included Chontales in Nicaragua, and that the boundary between it
and the sub-province of Southern Mexico and Guatemala must be
sought for more to the north-west.
Of the southern species, which in Chontales find their northern
limit, so far as is known, there are in my small collection
thirty-two species, whilst belonging to the northern sub-province,
and not known to range further south, there are only seven species;
showing that the connection with Costa Rica and the south is much
closer than that with Guatemala and the north, and that the
boundary between the two sub-provinces is not found, as was
supposed, in the depression of the isthmus occupied by the great
lakes and their outlet the San Juan river, but must exist further
towards, if not in, Honduras. Mr. Salvin says, "What I suspect to
be the case, though I cannot as yet bring evidence to prove it, is,
that the forests of Chontales spread uninterruptedly into Costa
Rica, but that towards the north and north-west a decided break
occurs, and that this break determines the range of the prevalent
Costa Rican and Guatemalan forest forms."* (* "The Ibis" July 1872
page 312.) I can confirm Mr. Salvin's supposition. The San Juan
river forms no greater break in the forest than a dozen other
rivers that run through it and fall into the Atlantic. But a
decided interruption does occur to the north-west. It is found in
the valleys of Humuya and Goascoran in Honduras, which, along with
the central plain of Comayagua, constitute a great transverse
valley running north and south from sea to sea, and cutting
completely through the chain of the Cordilleras.* (* Squier "States
of Central America" page 681.) The highest point of this pass is
2850 feet above the sea, and the country around is composed of
undulating savannahs and plains covered with grass. The Gulf of
Honduras, cutting deeply into the continent, also plays an
important part in preventing the intermingling of the faunas of the
two sub-provinces, but the principal barrier is the termination of
the great Atlantic forest north-westward, which even at Cape
Gracias begins to give place to plains and savannahs next the
coast.
(PLATE 25. LONGICORN BEETLES OF CHONTALES.
1. Evander nobilis, Bates.
2. Gymnocerus beltii, Bates.
3. Polyrhaphis fabricii, Thom.
4. Deliathis nivea, Bates.
5. Taeniotes praeclarus, Bates.
6. Chalastinus rubrocinctus, Bates.
7. Cosmisoma Titania, Bates.
8. Carneades superba, Bates.
9. Amphionyca princeps, Bates.)
My entomological collections were much more complete than my
collections of birds, especially those of the butterflies and
beetles.* [* The author's bird and insect collections were
purchased at his death by Messrs Godman and Salvin who also
acquired from Mr. H.W. Bates the types and other specimens of
coleoptera described by him which had not remained in the original
collection. These are all now in the British Museum, together with
the Hewitson bequest, in which are many of the lepidoptera types.
It may not be out of place to add that Mr. Hewitson left in his
will the sum of two hundred pounds to Belt in recognition of the
way in which the latter's collections had been placed at his
service.] Mr. W.C. Hewitson has described twenty-five new species,
but no list of the whole of the butterflies known from Nicaragua
has yet been published. In Coleoptera I made large collections, but
the extensive families of the Elateridae, Lamellicorns, and others
are still uncatalogued, and very many species remain to be
described. The only beetles that have been catalogued as yet with
sufficient completeness to warrant any general conclusions are the
Longicorns. I collected about 300 different species, and Mr. H.W.
Bates has enumerated 242 of these in a paper "On the Longicorn
Coleoptera of Chontales, Nicaragua," published in the "Transactions
of the Entomological Society" for 1872. In an interesting summary
of the results he gives the following analysis of the range of the
species:--
Peculiar to Chontales: 133 species.
Common to Chontales and Mexico: 38 species.
Common to Do. and the West India Islands: 5 species.
Common to Do. and the United States: 5 species.
Common to Do. and New Grenada or Venezuela: 24 species.
Common to Do. and the Amazon Region: 22 species.
Common to Do. and South Brazil: 10 species.
Generally distributed in Tropical America: 5 species.
Total: 242 species.
Omitting the peculiar species and those generally distributed in
Tropical America, we have thus forty-three that are found in
Chontales and in Mexico or the United States, and sixty-one that
are found in Chontales and countries lying to the southward. The
preponderance of southern forms is not so great as in the birds,
but when we reflect on the large number of peculiar species, and
that the Longicorns of the Atlantic slope of Costa Rica are yet
scarcely known, it appears likely that many of the Chontales
species will be found ranging southward across the San Juan river,
and that the Insect fauna will be shown to have the same relations
as the Bird fauna; for, as the Atlantic forest continues unbroken
much further southward than northward, so will the insects peculiar
to the forest region have a greater range in that direction.
Mr. Hollick has beautifully drawn on wood a few of the
characteristic Longicorns of Chontales, all of them, with one
exception (Polyrhaphis fabricii), being as yet only known from that
province, but probably extending into Costa Rica.
One of these, the lovely little Cosmisoma Titania, Number 7 in
Plate 25, has been appropriately named after the Queen of the
Fairies by Mr. Bates. It was first found by Mr. Janson, junior, who
came out to Chontales purposely to collect insects; and I
afterwards obtained it in great numbers. The use of the curious
brushes on the antennae is not known. Another longicorn, about the
same size (Coremia hirtipes), has its two hindmost legs greatly
lengthened, and furnished with brushes: one I saw on a branch was
flourishing these in the air, and I thought at first they were two
black flies hovering over the branch, my attention being taken from
the body of the beetle by the movement of the brushes.
Another fine longicorn, figured in Plate 25, Deliathis nivea, looks
as if made of pure white porcelain spotted with black. It is a rare
beetle, one or two specimens each season being generally all that
are taken. It is usually found on the leaves of young trees from
twelve to twenty feet from the ground. I have taken the rather
heavy-bodied female by throwing a stone at it and causing it to
fall within reach, but the male is more active on the wing, and it
was long before I obtained a specimen.
(PLATE 26. LEAF INSECT.)
(PLATE 27. MOSS INSECT.)
Amongst the insects of Chontales none are more worthy of notice
than the many curious species of Orthoptera that look like green
and faded leaves of trees. I have already described one species
that resembles a green leaf, and so much so that it even deceived
the acute senses of the foraging ants; other species, belonging to
a closely-related genus (Pterochroza), imitate leaves in every
stage of decay, some being faded-green, blotched with yellow;
others, as in the species figured, resemble a brown withered leaf,
the resemblance being increased by a transparent hole through both
wings that looks like a piece taken out of the leaf. In many
butterflies that resemble leaves on the under side of their wings,
the wings being raised and closed together when at rest so as to
hide the bright colours of the upper surface, there are similar
transparent spots that imitate holes; and others again are jagged
at the edge, as if pieces had been taken out of them. Many
chrysalides also have mirror-like spots that resemble holes; and
one that I found hanging from the under side of a leaf had a real
hole through it, formed by a horn that projected from the thorax
and doubled back to the body, leaving a space between. Another
insect, of which I only found two specimens, had a wonderful
resemblance to a piece of moss, amongst which it concealed itself
in the daytime, and was not to be distinguished except when
accidentally shaken out. It is the larval stage of a species of
Phasma.
The extraordinary perfection of these mimetic resemblances is most
wonderful. I have heard this urged as a reason for believing that
they could not have been produced by natural selection, because a
much less degree of resemblance would have protected the mimetic
species. To this it may be answered, that natural selection not
only tends to pick out and preserve the forms that have protective
resemblances, but to increase the perceptions of the predatory
species of insects and birds, so that there is a continual
progression towards a perfectly mimetic form. This progressive
improvement in means of defence and of attack may be illustrated in
this way. Suppose a number of not very swift hares and a number of
slow-running dogs were placed on an island where there was plenty
of food for the hares but none for the dogs, except the hares they
could catch; the slowest of the hares would be first killed, and
the swifter preserved. Then the slowest-running dogs would suffer,
and having less food than the fleeter ones, would have least chance
of living, and the swiftest dogs would be preserved; thus the
fleetness of both dogs and hares would be gradually but surely
perfected by natural selection, until the greatest speed was
reached that it was possible for them to attain. I have in this
supposed example confined myself to the question of speed alone,
but in reality other means of pursuit and of escape would come into
play and be improved. The dogs might increase in cunning, or
combine together to work in couples or in packs by the same
selective process; and the hares on their part might acquire means
of concealment or stratagem to elude their enemies; but, on both
sides, the improvement would be progressive until the highest form
of excellence was reached. Viewed in this light, the wonderful
perfection of mimetic forms is a natural consequence of the
selection of the individuals that, on the one side, were more and
more mimetic, and on the other (that of their enemies) more and
more able to penetrate through the assumed disguises. It has
doubtless happened in some cases that species, having many foes,
have entirely thrown off some of them through the disguises they
have been brought to assume, but others they still cannot elude.
Since Mr. Bates first brought forward the theory of mimetic
resemblances its importance has been more and more demonstrated, as
it has been found how very largely animal life has been influenced
in form and colour by the natural selection of the varieties that
were preserved from their enemies, or enabled to approach their
prey, through the resemblance they bore to something else. So
general are these deceptive resemblances throughout nature, that it
is often difficult to determine whether sexual preferences or the
preservation of mimetic forms has been most potent in moulding the
form and coloration of species, and in some the two forces are seen
to be opposed in their operation. Thus in some butterflies that
mimic the Heliconidae, the females only are mimetic, the males
retaining the normal form and coloration of the group to which they
belong. In such cases it appears as if the females have not been
checked in gradually assuming the disguise they wear, and it is
important that they should be protected, as they are more exposed
to destruction while seeking for places to deposit their eggs; but
that both sexes should not have inherited the change in form and
colour when it would have been beneficial to both can only be
explained, I think, on the supposition that the females had a
choice of mates and preferred those that retained the primordial
appearance of the group. This view is supported by the fact that
many of the males of the mimetic Leptalides have the upper half of
the lower wing of a pure white, whilst all the rest of the wings is
barred and spotted with black, red, and yellow, like the species
they mimic. The females have not this white patch, and the males
usually conceal it by covering it with the upper wing, so that I
cannot imagine its being of any other use to them excepting as an
attraction in courtship, to exhibit to the females, and thus
gratify a deep-seated preference for the normal colour of the order
to which the Leptalides belong.
I finally left the mines September 6th, 1872, on my way to England.
I was accompanied through the forest by several of the mining
officials. Though glad to return to Europe, it was not without some
feeling of regret that I rode for the last time through the forest
where I had so often wandered during the years I had been at Santo
Domingo. The woods had become as familiar to me as home scenes. No
more should I see the white-headed ruby humming-bird come darting
down the brook, chasing away the green-throat from its
bathing-place; no more watch the flocks of many-coloured birds
hunting the insects in the forests, or admire the wonderful
instincts of the tropical ants. I listened with pleasure to the
last hoarse cries of the mot-mots, and tried to impress on my
memory the curious forms of vegetation--the palms, the gigantic
arums, the tangled lianas, and perching epiphytes.
After reaching Pital I rode rapidly over the savannahs, where the
swallows were skimming over the top of the long grass to frighten
up the insects which rested there. After another flounder across
the San Jose plains, I reached San Ubaldo without incident,
excepting a tumble with my mule in the mud. Much of the land
between Pital and the lake is well fitted for the cultivation of
maize, sugar, and plantains, and near the river at Acoyapo the soil
is very fertile. Little of it is occupied, and it is open to any
one to squat down on it and fence it in. All that is required is
that the form shall be gone through of obtaining permission from
the alcalde of the township, which is never refused. Nicaragua
offers a tempting field for the emigrant, but there are some other
considerations which should not be lost sight of. When a man finds
he can live easily without much work, that all his neighbours are
contented with the scantiest clothing, the coarsest food, and the
poorest dwellings, he is very apt to fall into the same slothful
habits. Even if he himself has innate energy enough to ward off the
insidious foe, he will see his children growing up exposed to all
the temptations to lead an easy life that a tropical climate
offers, and without any example of industry or enterprise around
them to arouse or cultivate a spirit of emulation. The consequence
is that nearly all the foreign settlers in Nicaragua from amongst
the European and North American labouring classes have fallen into
the same lazy habits as the Nicaraguans, and whenever I have been
inclined to blame the natives for their indolence, some
recollection of a fellow-countryman who has succumbed to the same
influences has arrested my harsher judgment. I cannot recommend
Nicaragua, with all its natural wealth, its perpetual summer, its
magnificent lakes, and its teeming soil, as a place of emigration
for isolated families, and even for larger schemes of colonisation
I do not think it so suitable as our own colonies and the United
States. A large body of emigrants would carry with them the
healthful influence of the good and industrious, and the spirit of
emulation and progress might be preserved if the community could be
kept together, but I fear this could not be. After a while the
tastes of one individual would lead in one, those of another in an
opposite direction. Where all were free to choose, the idle would
go away from the influences that urged them to industry, the
sensual from the restraints of morality. Many will, however, smile
at the objection I have to emigration to Nicaragua, when they
perceive that it is founded only on the ease with which people can
live in plenty there. There is one form of colonisation that will
be successful, and that is the gradual moving down southward of the
people of the United States. When the destiny of Mexico is
fulfilled, with one stride the Anglo-American will bound to the
Isthmus of Panama, and Central America will be filled with cattle
estates, and with coffee, sugar, indigo, cotton, and cacao
plantations. Railways will then keep up a healthful and continuous
intercourse with the enterprising North, and the sluggard and the
sensual will not be able to stand before the competition of the
vigorous and virtuous. Nor will the Anglo-American long be stayed
by the Isthmus in his progress southward. Unless some such
catastrophe happens as a few years ago threatened to cover North
America with standing armies as in Europe, which God forbid, not
many centuries will roll over before the English language will be
spoken from the frozen soil of the far north to Tierra del Fuego in
the south.
The fine steamer that the enterprise of Mr. Hollenbeck had placed
on the lake, and which he had named the "Elizabeth" after his
amiable wife, had been wrecked a short time before I left the
country, and Mr. Hollenbeck's own health had greatly suffered by
the labours he undertook in endeavouring to get the vessel off the
sunken rock on which it had struck. Notwithstanding this and other
misfortunes, enough to try a man's mettle to its foundation, his
native pluck carried him through all his difficulties, and he was
away to the States to get new vessels and blow another blast at
fortune's iron gates. Whilst I write these last few pages I learn
that a new steamer ploughs the lake, and that his transit service
is again in complete working order. Success attend him.
The result of the wreck of the "Elizabeth", so far as I was
concerned, was that I had to take a passage down the lake to San
Carlos in a bungo packet, so full as to necessitate closer
acquaintanceship with many amiable Nicaraguans than was agreeable
to my insular prejudices. When in the middle of the night an old
woman tried to roll me off the soft plank I had found for myself
into a litter of crying babies, I indulged in some bitter
reflections on the race, that, I am happy to say, were as
transitory as the inconvenience to which I was put. At San Carlos
we changed to the river steamer under my old friend Captain
Birdsall. As I have already described the scenery of the San Juan
in the account of my journey up, I shall not repeat the story, but
simply state that we reached Greytown on the 11th September, and on
the 16th embarked on the West Indian Mail Packet. I arrived in
England within a month, to find my native town (Newcastle)
wealthier and dirtier than ever, with thousands of furnaces
belching out smoke and poisonous gases; to find the people of
England fretting about the probable exhaustion of her coal-fields
in a few hundred years, actually dreading the time when she will no
longer be the smithy of the world, but the centre of the science,
philosophy, literature, and art of the Anglo-Saxon race--that race
whose sons all over the globe will then look up to her with loving
reverence as the mother of nations, the coloniser of the world, the
pioneer of freedom, progress, and morality.
INDEX.
Acacias.
Acarus.
Acclimature.
Achras sapota.
Acoyapo.
Acrocinus longimanus.
Adiantum.
Aguardiente.
Aguasco, R.
Ahuacatl.
Airey, Sir George.
Alligators.
Alloy.
Alluvial deposits, gold.
Amalgam.
Amalgamation process.
America, western side of tropical, food of people.
American race, derivation of.
Amerrique range, the.
Ampullari.
Amusements, Nicaraguan.
Ancylus.
Andagoya, Pascual de.
his account of Nicaragua.
on chicha-drinking.
Aneimea hirsuta.
oblongifolia.
Angelot, M.
on fused rock.
Angraecum sesquipedale.
Anolis.
Antigonon leptopus.
Antiquities. Indian.
Antonio, San, lode.
Antonio, San, Valley.
Ants.
Ants, army.
assisting each other.
attending leaf hoppers.
attending scale insects.
ant bridge.
communicate by scent.
cows.
foraging.
hunting.
inhabiting bullshorn thorn.
leaf cutters.
reason in.
sagacity of.
stinging.
thrushes.
Apanas.
Aphidae.
Armadillos.
Arrastres.
Articulata.
Artificial selection.
Artigua, R.
Arum.
Asses.
Ateles.
Atlantis.
Auriferous quartz.
veins of, in Queensland.
Australia.
hot winds in.
wasps in.
whirlwinds in.
Avila, Gil Gonzales de.
Avocado.
trees.
Axes.
ancient Mexican.
stone.
Aztecs.
Baldwin, Mr. J.D.
Bamboo thickets.
Bananas.
Baptism, a pre-christian rite.
Bates, Mr. H.W.
on instinct in wasps.
on life under the equator.
on the Longicorn Coleoptera of Chontales.
on mimetic forms.
on mimetic resemblances.
on social birds.
on wings of Morphos.
Bats.
Beak of birds.
Bees.
Beetles.
habits of.
the harlequin.
killing bug.
on Pena Blanca.
tiger.
Begonias.
Benito, San. lode.
Bermudez, Don Dolores.
Birds.
accompanying an army of ants.
fertilising flowers.
nests.
rejecting Heliconii.
Bittern.
Bland, Mr., on the distribution of land shells in the West Indies.
Blewfields, R.
Boulder clay.
Boundary question between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Bourbourg, Brasseur de, Abbe, on the Teo Amoxtli.
Brazil, migratory butterflies of.
Breadfruits.
Bromelia.
Bruce, on whirlwinds in Africa.
Buccaneers.
Bugs. injecting poisonous fluid.
Bullock, Mr. W., on the use of rattles in Mexico.
Bull's-horn thorn.
wasps attending glands of.
Bungos.
Buprestidae.
Burial customs of the ancient Indians.
Butterflies.
instinct of.
migrations of.
in Rio Plata.
in Patagonia.
Mr. Darwin on.
Mr. R. Spruce on.
Cabbage.
Cacao.
Cactuses. tree.
Californian pitcher-plant.
Callidryas.
Calliste larvata.
laviniae.
Calopteron basilis.
vicinum.
Canal, interoceanic.
Candelera, El.
Candolle, Alphonse de, on fresh-water productions.
Canis caraibicus (Lesson).
ingae (Tschudi).
Capsicums.
Captive Indians.
Carabidae.
Carbolic acid.
Carca Indians.
R.
Caribbean Sea, carving on rocks on the banks.
Caribs.
food of the.
Carlos, San.
R.
Carrots.
Castillo.
capture of by Nelson.
Castilloa elastica.
Caterpillars.
Catlin, G.
on traditions of the deluge among the American Indians.
"Lifted and Subsided Rocks in America" by.
Cattle.
raising.
Cebus albifrons.
white-faced.
anecdotes.
Cecropia.
Cedar.
Cedrela odorata.
Celeus castaneus.
Cement.
white.
Centipedes.
Central America.
States of, absence of patriotism in.
civil war.
tyrannical oligarchies.
Centrurus pucherani.
Chicchera.
Chicha.
Chichalakes.
Children, great numbers of.
Childs, Colonel, O.W., survey for canal.
Chilote.
Chioties.
Chirosciphia lineata.
Chlorophanes guatemalensis.
Chocoyo, R.
Choluans.
Chontales, birds of.
insects.
derived from chontali.
Mining Co.
Chontales and Costa Rica, connection of forest forms.
Chontals.
Cicadae.
Cinerary urns.
Citron trees.
Citrus aurantium.
lemonum.
medicus.
Clarke, Mr. Hyde.
Claro, Santa.
Clausilia.
Clavigero.
on the Xoloitzcuintli.
Climate.
of Nicaragua.
San Domingo.
Club-moss.
Coccidae.
Cockatoo of Australia.
Cockchafer.
Cock-fighting.
Cockroaches.
instinct.
Cocos.
Cocos butyracea.
Coffee.
Coleoptera.
Colorado, R.
Colour, differences in, correlated with immunity from disease.
Columbus, Christopher.
Colymbetes.
Comelapa.
Comiens.
Comoapa.
Concordia.
Condego.
festival of.
Congo monkeys.
Consuelo lode.
Coremia hirtipes.
Corrosive sublimate.
Cortess.
Cosmisoma Titania (Bates).
Couvade, the custom of the.
Coyotes.
Cranes.
Crantor, on the Island Atlantis.
Crax globicera.
Creepers.
Crematogaster.
Cross.
the sign of.
Cuapo, rock of.
Cuba.
Curassow.
Cyanocitta melanocyanea.
Cybister.
Cyclones.
origin of.
West Indian.
Cyrtodeira Chontalensis.
Daintree's, Mr. R., "Notes on the Geology of Queensland".
Daraily.
Darlingtonia californica.
Darwin, "Descent of Man".
Darwin on animals and plants.
on the effects of slight differences of colour.
on fertilisation of scarlet runner.
on fossil maize in Peru.
on fresh-water mollusks.
on the bumble bee.
on the migration of butterflies.
Darwin on natives of Terra del Fuego.
Deer.
hunting.
Degeneration of the inhabitants of Central America.
Deliathis nivea (Bates).
Depilto.
R.
valley of.
Desmiphora fasciculata.
Diabase.
Diaz de Castello on the use of cement by the Indians.
Dicoteles tajacu.
Digitalis purpurea.
Diodorus Siculus.
Diorytic intrusive rocks.
Diphyrama singularis (Bates).
Diriangan.
Doleryte.
Domingo, Santo.
commissioner's house at.
mines at.
rain at.
watershed at.
Quebrada de.
Dove, M., on origin of cyclones.
Dragon flies.
Drosera.
Duncan, Professor, on the submergence of Isthmus of Darien
in Miocene times.
Du Tertre.
Dytiscidae.
Eagle, monkey-eating.
Easter Island.
_Eciton hamata_.
predator.
Ecitons.
Egrets, white.
Elaps.
Elateridae.
Elephantiasis.
"Elizabeth", steamer.
Elote.
Elvan dykes.
Endives.
Epidemic among insects.
wasps in Great Britain.
Epiphytes.
Eriosoma.
Erythrina.
Esquipula.
Essequibo, carved rocks of.
Estely, the.
Eumonota superciliaris.
Evander nobilis (Bates).
Fairbairn, Mr.
Farina.
Felspar.
Ferns.
maiden-hair.
oak.
tree.
Festa.
Festivals.
Fig trees.
Fire-flies.
Fissure veins.
Floating plants.
Florida.
Florisuga Mellivora, Linn.
Fly-catchers.
Forbes, Mr. David, on auriferous quartz veins.
Forest of the Atlantic slope.
"Forest region, limit of the".
effect of cultivation on the.
Forest-vegetation.
Foxglove, fertilisation of.
Franklin on whirlwind in Maryland.
Fresh-water animals.
plants.
Frogs.
on Pena Blanca.
Gage, Thomas, on the Indians' respect for their priest.
Garrapatos.
Glacial beds.
period.
scratches.
Gneiss.
Gold.
bars.
distribution of, in quartz veins.
mining.
Gosse, P., on grassquit of Jamaica.
Gourd-shaped pottery.
Gracias a Dios, C.
Granada.
courts of law at.
Granitic intrusive rocks.
Grasshoppers.
Green, Dr.
Greenstone.
Grenadillos.
Greytown.
trade of.
salubrity of, due to its flatness.
Grouse.
Guatuse, the.
Guatuses, Indians.
Guava jelly.
Guayava trees.
Guinea grass.
Gummiferae.
Guzman, Senor Fernando.
Gyrinidae.
Harlequin beetle.
Hartt, Professor, on glacial drift in South America.
Hawks.
crab eating.
Hayti.
Heer, Professor, on the Miocene flora.
Heliconiae.
Heliconidae.
Heliconii.
Heliomaster pallidiceps (Gould).
Heliothrix barroti.
Hemiptera.
Herrana purpurea.
Hesperidae.
Hewitson, Mr. W.C.
Hides.
Hollenbeck, Mr.
Homoptera.
Honey-glands.
Horse fly.
Huaco.
Huexlotl.
Humboldt.
on hairless dogs.
on origin of the Mexican and Eastern Asiatics.
on origin of whirlwinds.
Humming-birds.
abundance of.
nests of.
rapidity of flight.
bathing.
fertilising flowers.
tongue of.
Hydrophilus.
Hymenoptera.
Hypoclinea sp.
"Ibis".
Ice, influence of, in volcanic eruptions.
Icteridae.
Icterus pectoralis, Wagl.
Iguana.
Indian
antiquities.
carving.
children.
cooking vessels.
graves.
houses.
love of flowers.
miners.
names of towns.
Indians,
brown.
red.
origin of.
wholesale baptism of, by Spanish.
India-rubber.
Indigo.
plantations.
Insectivorous birds.
Insect life at night.
traps.
Insects.
instinct of.
mimetic.
Interoceanic canal.
Ixodes bovis.
Jacanas.
Jaguar.
Jamaily.
Jatropha Manihot.
Javali lode.
mine.
R.
Jicara.
Jinotega.
valley of.
Jose, San.
Plains.
Juan, San, R.
Del Norte.
bar of.
delta of.
Juigalpa.
R.
Kidney beans.
Kingfishers.
Kingsley, Canon.
account of volcanic eruption of St. Vincent.
on the dry land connecting the Islands of the West Indies.
Kotzebue's voyage round the world.
Lacandones of Guatemala.
Lagoon.
Lamellicorns.
Lampyridae.
Landslips.
Las Lajas.
Laurentian rock.
Lenca Indians.
Leptalides.
Lettuces.
Leucopternis ghiesbreghti.
Lianas.
water.
Libertad.
mines.
rain at.
Lime trees.
stone.
Lizards.
tree.
Locust.
Lodes, deterioration in depth of.
direction of.
Logwood.
Longicorn beetles.
Louisiana.
Lymnaea.
Lymnaeacea.
Macaws.
Maceio, subject to fevers.
Machuca.
Mackleania.
McCrae, Colonel.
Madeira peaks.
Mahogany.
Maize.
cultivation of.
eaters.
food of the people of North-East Brazil.
of Mexico.
of British Guiana.
of the Caribs.
stone grinders.
Malacatoyo, R.
Malayan dialects.
Mallocera Spinicollis.
Mammalia.
Mandioca.
Mangos.
Manihot aipim.
Mantos, origin of.
Marcgravia nepenthoides.
Masaya.
lake of.
volcano of.
strata at.
origin of strata at.
Masaya Indians, women.
Matagalpa.
Maury, Professor T.B., on origin of cyclones.
Mayas.
of Yucatan.
Melastomae.
pouches in.
Menmbracis.
Mercury.
Mestayer, Monsieur.
Mestizos.
Metlate.
Mexico.
maize in.
food of people of.
Miau-tsze.
Mice.
Mico, R.
Microchera parvirostris.
Microscopical cavities in rocks.
Miguelito, San.
Mines.
Javali.
Domingo, Santo.
Libertad.
El Coquimba.
Mirage.
Mocoim, the.
Momotus Martii.
lessoni.
Monedula surinamensis (Fabr.).
Monkeys.
sagacity of.
speech of.
spider.
white-faced.
Montezuma.
Mordellidae.
Morphos.
Morren, Dr., of Liege.
Mosas.
Mosquitoes.
Moss insect.
Moths.
migratory.
Mot-mots.
tails of.
Mules.
bitten by spiders.
sagacity of.
thieves.
Murderers, punishment of, in Nicaragua.
Muscovy ducks.
Muy-muy.
Mycetes Palliatus.
Mygale.
Myriapods.
Nahuatls.
Names.
of natural features of a country important in an inquiry as to
the original inhabitants.
of places corrupted.
Nancito.
Nandasme.
Nasua fasca.
Nectarina.
Nephila.
Nequen.
Neuwied, Prince Maximilian, on nest of Tody.
Nicaragua.
bird fauna of.
civil war in.
conquest of by Spaniards.
division of into three zones.
emigration to.
insects of.
Nicaragua, name of chief.
Nicaraguans, hospitality of.
litigious.
and Mexicans closely related.
Nicaraguan judges.
soldiers.
women.
Nicoya, Gulf of.
Nispera.
Nispral.
Ocalca.
Ocelots.
Ocotal.
Oecodoma.
Olama.
Ometepec, Island of.
peaks.
Onions.
Oniscus.
Opossums.
Orange trees.
Orchids.
on rock of Cuapo.
on Pena Blanca.
Orinoco, carved rocks of.
Ornithorhynchos.
Oropendula.
Orthoptera.
Owls.
Palacaguina.
Palms.
cocoa-nut.
wine.
Palosabre.
Papaws.
Papilios.
Para grass.
Parrots.
Parsley.
Passiflora quadrangularis.
Passion flower.
Paton, Mr.
Pavon.
Pavones.
Pavos.
Peas.
Pediculi.
Pedrarias.
Pena Blanca.
ascent of.
rocks of.
precipice of.
Penelope.
Pentatoma punicea.
Pernambuco, healthiness of.
Peroxide of iron.
magnesia.
Peru, maize found in raised beaches and tombs.
Petasophora delphinae.
Petrels.
Phaethornis longirostris.
Phalangidae.
Phaseolus multiflorus.
Phasma.
Pheidole sp.
Phenax.
tail of.
Phoenicothraupis fusicauda.
Physa.
Pigeons, wild.
Pigs, wild, or wari.
Pine apples.
trees.
Pinuela, the.
Pinus tenuifolia.
Pionia lycoides.
Pisoti.
Pita.
Pital.
Planorbis.
Plantains.
Plantain trees.
Plant lice.
Platyrhynchus.
Pliocene period.
Plough, Nicaraguan.
Polistes carnifex.
Polybia occidentalis.
Polyrhaphis Fabricii, Thom.
Port Just, veins of granite and quartz at.
Pot-holes.
Pottery.
ancient Indian.
gourd shaped.
Priocnemis.
Prionyrhynchus carinatus.
Pseudomyrma bicolor (Guer.).
Ptero-chroza.
Puerta, La.
Pulque.
Pumpkins.
Quartz.
conglomerate.
rock.
veins.
Quequisque.
Quesal.
Quiches.
Quiscalus.
Rafael, San.
Ramphastus tocard.
Rats.
Reeve, Mr. Lovell, on Mollusks.
Rhamphocoelus passerinii.
sanguinolentus.
Rio Frio.
expeditions.
Indians of.
Rio.
Grande.
Mico.
Plata, migration of butterflies.
Wanks.
Rivers, names of.
Rosa Villosa.
Rosechafer.
Rose, glands on.
Salto, El.
Salvin, Mr. Osbert.
Sanate, the.
Sand-flies.
San Sebastian.
Santarem, wasps at.
Sarracenia.
Savallo, R.
Savannahs.
Scarlet runner.
Schomburgk.
Sclater, Dr., on the species of Crax.
Scorpions.
Season,
dry.
wet.
Seemann, Mr.
Segovia.
townships of.
Selection, artificial and natural, difference between.
Seripiqui, R.
Sharks.
Shells.
of the Caribbean prov.
of the Panamic.
Silkworms.
Silver.
mine.
Simpson, Dr. J.H.
Sisitote.
Skunk.
Solenopsis sp.
Sontule.
Sorby, Mr. H.C., on microscopic cavities in quartz.
Spaniards, invasion of Nicaragua by.
cruelties practised by.
Spermophila olivacea.
Spider monkeys.
Spiders.
Spiniger luteicornis (Walk.).
Squiers, Mr.
the Lenca Indians.
Steamboats on San Juan.
Lake of Nicaragua.
Still, native.
Stone.
axes.
hatchet.
implements.
maize grinders.
Stove, Indian.
Strabo.
Sugantia.
Sugar.
cane.
plantations.
Sugar-loaf hills.
Sulphide of.
copper.
iron.
silver.
Swallows.
Sweet potatoes.
Tabanus.
Tablason.
Taeniotes scalaris.
Talcose schists.
Tanagers.
Tapir.
Termites, or white ants.
Thaloc, the god of rain.
Thalurania venusta.
Theclae.
Theopompus, on a large island outside of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Thunderbolts.
Tillandsia.
usneoides.
Timetes.
cheron.
Tinamus.
Tiste.
Toledo.
Toltecs.
the cultivation of maize.
Tomatoes.
Tortillas.
Totagalpa.
Toucans.
beak of.
Trachyte.
Trappean dykes.
Trap rocks.
Trogon atricollis.
caligatus.
elegans.
females, dull coloured.
melanocephalus.
resplendens.
Trogons.
Tschudi, on indigenous dogs of tropical America.
Tylor, Mr. Alfred.
on the reduction of the level of the sea.
Tyler, E.B.
on the couvade.
his "Early History of Mankind".
on whirlwinds in Mexico.
Ubaldo, San.
Ulleros.
Ulli.
Unio.
Urania leilus.
Utopia.
Vacqueros.
Vanilla planifolia.
Velasquez, Don Francisco.
Vertebrata.
Viduas.
Viena paraca.
Virgin Islands.
carved rocks of.
Volcanoes.
Caracas.
Cosaguina.
Masaya.
San Miguel.
St. Vincent.
Vultures.
Wallace, Mr. A.R.
on Angraecum sesquipedale.
on brightly coloured caterpillars.
on the faunas of the Malay archipelago.
War, not always a curse.
Wasps.
attending leaf-hoppers.
hunting for spiders.
killing caterpillars.
nests of.
taking note of place to which they wish to return.
Water-beetles, bearing plants.
Waterfall near San Domingo.
of El Salto.
Westwood, Professor, on nests of mygale.
Whirlwind.
origin of.
Whitecap.
Wolves, or Coyotes.
Wood-lice.
chased by ants.
Woodpeckers.
tongue of.
Xilomen, feast of.
Xoloilzcuintli.
Yalaguina.
Yales.
Yucatan, the cross in.
Zeolite.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Naturalist in Nicaragua, by Thomas Belt