BIRDS OF SOUTHERN VERACRUZ — WETMORE 259 



On April 11, 1939, I shot a fine male of this strange bird. As we 

 crossed the savanna toward the village on that morning, Ramon 

 volunteered the information that the other evening he had seen a 

 lechusa in a tree nearby, so we walked over to see if it might again 

 be there. The tree was rather open-leaved, one of a group of three 

 or four growing on open savanna, with grasslands and low, scattered 

 thickets near, the nearest forest being a quarter of a mile distant. 

 I expected to find an owl, so that my astonishment was great to see 

 this strange bird perched on a knob projecting from the side of the 

 tree trunk 15 feet from the ground. It rested with the bill pointed 

 up and the tail hung down, so that the body throughout was per- 

 pendicular to the tree trunk. From its colors and position, it looked 

 exactly like a dead branch. In the hand, it gave me the usual feeling 

 of amazement at its great mouth and broad wings. 



The pupil of the eye was perfectly round and the iris bright yel- 

 low. The brain was no larger than an ordinary marble. The na- 

 tives who examined it remarked that it had bad meat, and in skin- 

 ning it I noticed that the body gave, to a powerful degree, the rank 

 odor found in anis and trogons. The natives all seemed well ac- 

 quainted with the species, and all called it the lechusa. 



Family CAPRIMULGIDAE 



NYCTIDROMUS ALBICOLLIS YUCATANENSIS Nelson 



Nyctidromus albicolUs yucatanensis Nelson, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 

 14, Sept. 25, 1901, p. 171 (Tunkas, Yucatan). 



The resident race of tapa camino, as these birds are known to the 

 natives, is represented by skins taken near Tres Zapotes on March 

 8 and 22, 1939, and March 5 and 6 and April 5, 1940. Carriker se- 

 cured two near Tlacotalpam on February 9 and 20. 



At Tres Zapotes these birds were common and were seen on many 

 occasions when they flushed near at hand in the monte. They were 

 often in pairs in March and April and rested on the ground in places 

 where small areas of a few square feet were relatively free of under- 

 growth. As they flew the light wing markings showed prominently, 

 and at times it appeared that the wings were moved in such a way 

 as to display these spots. A flight of a few feet usually carried them 

 behind some cover when they dropped again to the ground, though 

 occasionally they alighted on logs or low branches where they rested 

 along the long axis of the perch in the manner common to members 

 of their family. Sometimes I could see them with ease on their new 

 resting places, and sometimes they circled around and were lost. On 

 one dull, cloudy day, one rose in heavy woodland and flew high and 

 swiftly away through the trees in contrast to the usual low, erratic 

 flight. 



