Natural history -- Nicaragua; Nicaragua -- Description and travel
itself amongst some leaves; but the ant soon discovered it,
paralysed it with a sting, and was running away with it, turned
back downwards, beneath itself, when I secured the hunter for my
collection. All these ants that hunt singly have the eyes well
developed, and thus differ greatly from the Ecitons, or army ants.
The road, continuing down the Artigua, crosses it again, winds away
from it, then comes to it again, at a beautiful rocky spot overhung
by trees; the banks covered with plants and shrubs, and the rocks
with a great variety of ferns, whilst a babbling, clear brook comes
down from the ranges to the right. Some damp spots near the river
are covered with a carpet of a beautiful variegated, velvety-leaved
plant (Cyrtodeira chontalensis) with a flower like an achimenes,
whilst the dryer slopes bear melastomae and a great variety of
dwarf palms, amongst which the Sweetie (Geonoma sp.), used for
thatching houses, is the most abundant. About here grows a species
of cacao (Herrania purpurea) differing from the cultivated species
(Theobroma cacao). Amongst the larger trees is the "cortess,"
having a wood as hard as ebony, and at the end of March entirely
covered with brilliant yellow flowers, unrelieved by any green, the
tree casting its leaves before flowering. The great yellow domes
may be distinguished amongst the dark green forest at the distance
of five or six miles. Near at hand they are absolutely dazzling
when the sun is shining on them; and when they shed their flowers,
the ground below is carpeted as with gold. Another valuable timber
tree, the "nispera" (Achras sapota), is also common, growing on the
dryer ridges. It attains to a great size, and its timber is almost
indestructible, so that we used it in the construction of all our
permanent works. White ants do not eat it, nor, excepting when
first cut, and before it is barked, do any of the wood-boring
beetles. It bears a round fruit about the size of an apple, hard
and heavy when green, and at this time is much frequented by the
large yellowish-brown spider-monkeys (Ateles), which roam over the
tops of the trees in bands of from ten to twenty. Sometimes they
lay quiet until I was passing underneath, and then shaking a branch
of the nispera tree, they would send down a shower of the hard
round fruit. Fortunately I was never struck by them. As soon as I
looked up, they would commence yelping and barking, and putting on
the most threatening gestures, breaking off pieces of branches and
letting them fall, and shaking off more fruit, but never throwing
anything, simply letting it fall. Often, when on lower trees, they
would hang from the branches two or three together, holding on to
each other and to the branch with their fore feet and long tail,
whilst their hind feet hung down, all the time making threatening
gestures and cries. Occasionally a female would be seen carrying a
young one on its back, to which it clung with legs and tail, the
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