APR 29 1898 



THE AUK: 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



VOL. XV. April, 1898. no. 2. 



WITH BOB-WHITE IN MEXICO. 



BY E. W. NELSON. 



Plate II. 



While traveling in Mexico a few seasons ago, I arrived at a 

 small town near the southern end of the tableland in the State 

 of Puebla. The first business in hand was to secure suitable 

 quarters for myself and assistant. Having accomplished this I 

 was ready at an early hour the following morning for a tramp 

 into the surrounding country. It chanced to be market day, and 

 passing the outskirts of the town I met a straggling procession of 

 Indians, in picturesque costumes, some driving heavily loaded 

 donkeys, others carrying on their own backs crates of fruits, 

 vegetables, handmade pottery, and other simple wares. All were 

 pushing forward eager to take part in the keenly relished pleas- 

 ures of petty chaffering, which would enable them to return home 

 M'ith a few deciinos knotted in the ends of their sashes. Some of 

 the men saluted me with a polite " bueilos dias senor,"' but I 

 noted that their conversation was carried on in the Aztec tongue, 

 as spoken by their fathers centuries ago. 



Once free of the last houses a convenient opening in the fence 

 was soon found, and I crossed into a great field which reached 

 for miles down the broad, open valley. Areas covered with 

 wheat and corn stubble indicated the character of the last crops, 



