Editorial 



83 



ilirD Hore 



A Bimonthly Maeazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OFFICIAL ORi;AN "K llll': AUDIHON SOCIKIIKS 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 



Vol. XII Published April 1. 1910 No. 2 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in th; United States. Canada anil Mexico twenty cents 

 number, one dollar a j ear. postat^e paid. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1910. BY FKANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 /t Bird in the Bush is IVorth Two in the Hand 



Where in all the world can one tiis- 

 iDver in so rcstrit led an area, a wider range 

 of attractions than those wliiih arc to be 

 found in that portion of Mexico lying be- 

 tween Vera Cruz and Me.xico City? From 

 the moment when one is still thirty miles 

 from land and the snow-capped summit of 

 Orizaba, distant ninety miles, becomes 

 visible, until one reaches the site of Teno- 

 chtitlan itself, one's attention is held by a 

 variety of interests which make the trip 

 from coast to tableland an e|)itome of a 

 journey from the tropic to the temperate 

 zone. If one is in search of supremely 

 beautiful scenery it is here to the full limit 

 of human appreciation. Or if one would 

 test the climates of the world one may go 

 in a day from perpetual summer to ever- 

 lasting snow and at the same time pass 

 from belts where rain falls almost daily 

 to others where it is exceptional. One may 

 therefore select one's climate and by a few 

 hour's travel, either up or down the moun- 

 tain slopes, find perfection in climatic con- 

 ditions throughout the year. With these 

 extremes of temperature and rainfall there 

 is, of course, a corresponding diversity in 

 flora and fauna which makes the region 

 one of surpassing interest to the botanist 

 and zoologist and partic ularly to the stu- 

 dent of the geographical distribution of 

 life. 



For the archaeologist there are ruins 

 which evince a higher degree of aboriginal 

 civilization than has been found elsewhere 



in Ameiiia, and for the ellinologis Inatives 

 suth(iently isolated lo retain their tribal 

 customs and afford i)roblems of funda- 

 mental imporlaiue, in connecting the 

 present with the [)ast. 



The historic period opens with the in- 

 comparable romance of Cortez and the 

 Conquistadores and passes through three 

 centuries of Spanish government, the War 

 of Independence, the short-lived I';ni])irc of 

 Maximilian, the campaign of Siolt, to the 

 astonishing era of development under 

 Diaz. Thus, whether one be a student of 

 nature or of man or merely a traveler in 

 search of the novel and beautiful, this por- 

 tion of Mexico will appeal to him with a 

 force anfl fascination which makes a 

 journey through it one of the memorable 

 experiences of a lifetime of travel. 



One, however, should journey slowly. 

 The average tourist in his haste to reach the 

 Capital and avoid the, at this season, much 

 overrated heat of the tierra caliente rushes 

 through the tropical portion of his route 

 and thus misses the pleasure of an in- 

 troduction to many new forms of plant- 

 life and some of the most striking scenery 

 between the coast and tableland. To our 

 mind Mt. Orizaba is nowhere so impres- 

 sive as from the tropical zone at its feet 

 where, surrounded by a flora which sug- 

 gests equatorial heat, one looks upward 

 to perpetual snow and has at a glance an 

 effective lesson illustrating the influence 

 of temperature on the distribution of life. 



The character of the bird-life does not 

 reveal itself so quickly and the American 

 Museum Expedition, of which mention 

 was made in the last issue of Bird-Lore, 

 is now established at Cordova at the upper 

 limit of the tropical zone (alt. 2,713 feet), 

 whence expeditions will be made toward 

 the coast north and south through the 

 valleys which run parallel with the general 

 trend of the mountans and finally up to 

 the snow line on Mt. Orizaba itself, with the 

 object of ascertaining what at least are the 

 more common birds of the three life-zones 

 which are here represented. — Cordova, 

 Mexico, March 10, 1910. 



