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Nov., i9o5[ A WINTER WITH THE BIRDS IN COSTA RICA I53 minutes and were refreshed by good draughts of fresh milk and hot coffee. We then entered the primitive forest which still covers the last thousand feet, more or less, of the mountains, proceeding slowly and laboriously along a narrow trail of stiff black mud, up to the horses' knees and often deeper, mid full of tree roots in which the horses' feet were frequently entangled. The density of this forest was such that itwas impossible to leave the trail at any point without cutting a way with machetes; and as the undergrowth consisted mostly of slender climbing bamboos with exceedingly hard stems, which almost completely filled the spaces between the trees, the difficulty of making much headway may be imagined. The variety of trees in this forest was very great, many of the trees very large, and some of ex- treme beauty. All were fairly burdened with orchids, bromeliads, and mistletoes, the latter often conspicuously and brilliantly flowered and the bromeliads mostly of brilliant hues of orange, scarlet, or crimson. Here is the home of the royal Quetzal (Pharomachrus moc- inno)--the most gracefully and magnificently beautiful of all birds--mnid surround- ings no less magnificent than itself. Leaving our horses in an open basin (an ancient crater) surrounded by forest, we proceeded on foot to the summit of the cinder cone, but were disappointed in our view of the crater, which was completely filled ?vith dense clouds, except for a moment when the strong wind dispersed the mass of vapor and allowed a brief glimpse of the boiling lake, 4oo metres below. From the summit of the cone we de- scended to the lagoon (an- other extinct crater) filled with clear water of ahnost icy coldness, and surrounded by dense forest. Our stay ?vas much too short to enable us to learn much of the birds found on Pogs, but they were everywhere present in great variety, except ou the bare summit, where none whatever were seen. Pigres is a very small village of thatched ban]boo ranchos ou a narrow point of land (in reality a mere sand-bar) at the mouth of the Rio Grande de Tgrcoles, which enters the Pacific Oceau where the latter joius the Gulf of Nicoya. Across the latter is plainly seen the mouutains of the peniusula of Guanacaste, and to the southeast the densely forested coast mountains of the mainland, extending toward Panama. Between the narrow strip on which Pigres is situated and the mainland proper is the eslero, a broad creek of placid water bordered along each side by dense mangrove swamps. These are very narrow and of limited extent. on the Pigres side, most of the land consisting of bare sand, covered in places with