COLE: AVES FROM YUCATAN. Ill 



Chapman has also given a discussion of the origin of the Yucatan 

 avifauna, and later researches only tend to confirm his conclusion that it 

 is essentially Central American in its character. Recent explorations 

 have not done much in the way of adding new species, but a number of 

 forms have been split off as varietal. As is to be expected in an arid 

 country, these are in nearly all cases distinguished from their relatives of 

 Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and neighboring regions to the southward 

 by their smaller size and paler color. 



The weather during the period I spent at Chichen was more rainy 

 than is usual for the dry season, and this may have had some influence 

 on the bird life. But the general aspect was one of winter, or early 

 spring, in spite of the warmth and the occasional flowers. This was 

 emphasized -by the fact that many of the birds were to be found in droves 

 or flocks made up of a number of species, much as they are in our own 

 woods in the autumn and winter months. Thus one would often meet 

 with droves of warblers of various species, or of wood hewers, ant 

 thrushes, and the like. The jays, cowbirds, ground doves, parrots, and 

 even flycatchers, were usually in flocks of their own kind, while the 

 hawks, wrens, tanagers, cardinals, and other finches were usually to be 

 found singly or in pairs. Baker apparently found this peculiarity even 

 more marked in the vicinity of Tekanto, for he writes (A Naturalist in 

 Mexico, 1895, p. 32): "While hunting along the narrow path-ways 

 through the forest in the neighborhood of the camp, we would pass sev- 

 eral hours without seeing many birds ; but now and then the surround- 

 ing bushes and trees appeared suddenly to swarm with them. There 

 were scores of birds, all moving about with the greatest activity — 

 Crotophaga, woodpeckers, tanagers, flycatchers, and thrushes, flitting 

 about the lower leaves and branches. The bustling crowd lost no time, 

 but hurried along, each bird occupied on its account in scanning 

 bark, leaf, or twig in search of insects. In a few minutes the host was 

 gone, and the forest remained as silent as before." 



The attempt has been made in the present list to include every species 

 of bird known to have been definitely reported from Chichen-Itza, bring- 

 ing the total number to one hundred and twenty -eight species and sub- 

 species. This is an increase of fifty-four over Chapman's list, which 

 enumerated seventy-four forms. The additions are from four sources : 

 (1) Birds collected or observed by myself; (2) Easily recognizable birds 

 added on the authority of Mr. Thompson ; (3) A collection of skins 

 made by Mr. Thompson in the early nineties ; (4) Records from other 

 sources. My own collections were made with the idea of obtaining as 



