526 PIROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIOJSTAt, MUSEUM vol.89 



esting regions for my work. On the surrounding slopes and above 

 extended a great forest of cypress and pine, the former with trunks 

 often 6 to 8 feet in diameter and summits that towered from 125 to 

 200 feet in the air. With their wide knowledge of the local avifauna 

 my host and his son, Axel, Jr., gave every assistance in my work. 

 While birds were less abundant than at lower elevations, they were 

 of especial interest because of their peculiar type. In these moun- 

 tains, in addition to species unknown in the north, there range repre- 

 sentative races of a number of kinds of birds that are typical of the 

 Rocky Mountains in the western United States, here at or near their 

 southern limit. These include among others a hairy woodpecker, a 

 golden-crowned kinglet, a crested jay, and a brown creeper. A spe- 

 cies of junco was one of the most abundant birds. With these were 

 the brilliant trogons, the strange woodhewers that climbed on the 

 tree trunks like woodpeckers, brilliant mountain warblers, beauti- 

 fully colored hummingbirds, and other species that one normally 

 associates with the Central American avifauna. 



Farther down the mountain at the Finca Chichivac, also owned by 

 Sehor Pira, were forests of oak and other deciduous trees mixed with 

 pines, and here there was less of the almost continual fog and rain 

 of the higher elevations. One evening at Sierra Santa Elena the 

 fog cleared and the night air was sharp and cold. The following 

 morning the ground was white with a heavy frost and the sky was 

 clear. In the sunshine, most welcome after obscure days of fog, I 

 climbed to a lookout point at 10,000 feet elevation, where I had a 

 marvelous view over the mountains to the waters of Lake Atitlan, 

 while as my eye followed the line of the horizon, I counted the cones 

 of 12 volcanoes ranged in a great semicircle in the background. 



On November 24, another day of brilliant sunshine, we drove to 

 the elevated region of Desconsuelo, where we stopped about 14 kilo- 

 meters from the town of Totonicapam. The elevation ranged from 

 10,000 to 10,600 feet, with open country on the high, rolling ridges, 

 grown with grass or covered with low, dense tliickets, and scattered 

 trees. Forests of great pines came to 10,200 feet, among them occa- 

 sional gnarled patriarchs fully 10 feet through. Little valleys where 

 there were small streams of clear water often contained marshy 

 cienagas. The sun was warm and bright, and the grass green, and 

 the dark forests made a pleasing background. Birds were abundant, 

 and I made an excellent collection. 



On the return we visited the great rock of Maria Tecum, sacred to 

 the Indians, standing on a mountain shoulder with a sheer drop of 

 several hundred feet on its open face. From the summit there is a 

 wonderful view across broad reaches of mountain and valley. 



