BIRDS OF SOUTHERN VERACRUZ — WETMORE 225 



force until September, gradually then dying down. Mozino visited 

 the crater on two occasions, on September 23 and November 21. He 

 describes the two smaller, inner craters that Carriker observed, and 

 the great amount of ash over the mountain slopes, but his only remark 

 concerning the effect of the volcanic action on the life of the area is 

 that at the end of June the eruptions had destroyed the forest cover on 

 the mountain along the trail to Tecolapan for a distance of 10 leagues, 

 leaving only burned trunks of trees. 



Francisco Zerega, 3 who visited the crater of San Martin in August 

 1859, reports that the smaller cones in the bottom were covered with 

 vegetation even to the openings in their summits, where trees 15 to 20 

 feet tall were growing. He was told, however, that in 1828 this plant 

 growth was not present. 



Because of the recent volcanic activity in these mountains, it has 

 been supposed that there was no probability of any peculiarity in the 

 fauna, but such proves not to be the case. The two eruptions recorded 

 in historic times on San Martin had lava flows that broke out to the 

 north, but there does not appear to have been major disturbance else- 

 where except through the fall of volcanic ash. Friedlaender, in his 

 visit of January and February 1922, noted the same condition of 

 stunted trees on the crater rim of San Martin that Carriker reported 

 in 1940, and he was told that the extreme upper slopes had been bare 

 until 1900, the growth having appeared since then. In this, however, 

 he was misinformed ; more probably the restriction in the size of the 

 trees at the point mentioned has come from the effect of winds, since 

 the forest there is much older than the 40 years indicated. The stunt- 

 ing of trees is a usual circumstance at the summits of many such 

 mountains. 



It is remarkable that peculiar species could survive such volcanic 

 catastrophes on this mountain. Part of the endemic forms that once 

 inhabited the region no doubt have perished from repeated volcanic 

 disturbances, but some have remained as indicated by the list given 

 above. Of these species, the following, found and described during 

 our work, so far as now known, are peculiar to this mountain range : 



Oreopeleia laiwencii carrikeri 

 Pampa pampa excellens 

 Empidonax fiavescens impcrticrbatus 

 Myioborus miniatus molochinus 

 Atlapetes apertus 



There is not much question that other novelties remain in the great 

 forests of this region and that there is much to be learned of the dis- 

 tribution of birds in this area. Carriker, for example, heard Odon- 



* El Volcan de Tuxtla. Bol. Soc. Geogr. Estad. Republica Mexicana, vol. 2, 1870, pp. 

 500-503. 



