T ° 1 i906' 111 ] Bailey, Notes on Birds of Western Mexico. 371 



A number of small groves of cocoanut palms give shade to the 

 town and supply nesting places for parrots, woodpeckers, crows, 

 blackbirds, and orioles, and a roosting place for the ever present 

 vultures which, with the aid of the chickens and hogs, take the 

 place of a sanitary department. The land that is or has been 

 cultivated in years past has on it a few scattered trees which afford 

 nesting sites for some of the commoner birds, while the bushes and 

 undergrowth bordering the roads are literally alive with quail, 

 doves, parrots, parakeets, Groove-billed Anis, trogons, and numer- 

 ous small birds, which from sunrise till about 7.30 A. M. make 

 one think all the birds in the whole Territory are congregated there. 

 With the two mouths of the Santiago River, one at the front of the 

 town, the other to the south of it, and the good shore line of sandy 

 beach, one can get all he desires in the way of water birds; and, 

 taking it all in all, this particular section is certainly an ideal place 

 for collecting. But with all these inducements, don't think for 

 an instant that all you have to do is to walk out and load up with 

 land and water birds without any trouble. Along the beaches the 

 mosquitoes and a very small species of sand fly make you long 

 to get back to the net shelter in your room, while the same little 

 plagues attend collecting in the fields, with the addition of the 

 black ant, which stings with its tail, .and the "weaners," a very 

 small species of tick — so small as to be hardly distinguishable 

 except when in bunches of thousands on your clothes. These 

 weaners are on every blade of grass and bush, and one has to change 

 his clothes immediately in coming in from the field, smoking them 

 thoroughly being about the only way to get them off. About all 

 the collecting must be done from day-break to 7 or 8 o'clock, on 

 .account of the heat, and after about 8 o'clock all the birds have 

 retired to the undergrowth for the day, from which it is almost 

 impossible to dislodge them or to get one should you shoot it. The 

 rainy and hot season is said to last from about June 15 until the 

 1st to the 15th of November, during which period this section is 

 visited by destructive thunderstorms or chubascos. 



From February 18 until March 11 a little collecting was done 

 on and around the banana ranch, with a few days at San 

 Bias, and during this period the majority of the commoner birds 

 were secured. An estero at the foot of the mountains and back of 



