BIRDS OF SOUTHERN VERACRUZ — WETMORE 219 



Laguna del Tular, and still farther away is the Arroyo Tepanaguasa- 

 pan whose black waters run sluggishly through broad areas of dark, 

 swampy forest to come down finally into the marshy savanna area 

 called Para Madera that extends to the river. Other lakes and 

 marshes are found near Hueyapa. 



Beyond, toward the Sierra de Tuxtla, I worked on the low hills 

 called Cerro Chico Zapote and Cerro Nestepe, which were covered 

 with gallery forest, where I found relatively few birds. East and 

 north of camp lay the Arroyo del Sitio and various other smaller 

 branches of the Hueyapa running through jungle and milpas. To 

 the northwest at the Arroyo Corredor was a great tract of heavy 

 forest with much undergrowth (pi. 27, fig. 2). 



The region was one of abundant birds that came to the very door of 

 the little palm-thatched house that Richard Stewart and I had built 

 to contain a dark room for the photographer and to serve as labora- 

 tory for the ornithologist. In the beginning, with Ramon Galloso 

 as assistant, I worked on foot through the whole region adjacent to 

 camp, and then used riding mules to reach more distant sections, 

 traveling along narrow trails where the arroyo crossings seemed 

 bottomless in sticky mud. These early morning rides afield, afford- 

 ing me opportunity to watch from the elevation of the saddle the 

 small birds in the trailside bushes or the spiraling flocks of great 

 hawks as they moved slowly northward in migration, while the 

 harsh calls of dozens of chachalacas came on every hand, are among 

 the happy memories of this work in Mexico. At the end of March, 

 with appreciably lessened rainfall, the trails became hard, with 

 disappearance of the sticky mud that had filled them previously, 

 and at times the midday sun became hot and oppressive. 



We closed the camp on April 15 and traveled that day as far as 

 Tlacotalpam, continuing on April 16 to Alvarado and Veracruz. 



Other duties prevented my own return the following season, but 

 arrangement was made for M. A. Carriker, Jr., well known for his 

 extensive work over wide areas in Latin America, to continue the 

 investigations. Mr. Carriker arrived at the camp near Tres Zapotes 

 on January 14, 1941. The weather early this season was bad, with 

 one norte following another, considerable rain, and temperatures 

 ranging from 50° F. to 60° F. Carriker was occupied with work in 

 this area until January 31, when he returned to Tlacotalpam to secure 

 a needed series of birds in that vicinity. The avifauna there is quite 

 different from that of Tres Zapotes, owing to the absence of heavy 

 forest. The higher, drier land is found principally near the Rio Papa- 

 loapan, and is in the main planted in sugarcane, in whose fields birds 

 are few. The scanty woodland consists of thorn scrub found inland 

 near the extensive ponds and lagoons, with tracts of marshy meadow 



