144 



represented here cluriug the dry season. This may be accounted for 

 from the fact that this extensive region is diversified with rudely- 

 cultivated farms, old fields overgrown with brambles and weeds, impen- 

 etrable thorny woods and forests of large trees, interspersed here and 

 there with stagnant lagoons and lakes, through the center of which 

 wind the clear waters of the Eio Mazatlan ; there abounds animal life in 

 great abundance; the old neglected fields, overgrown with matted 

 vegetation, harbor innumerable field-mice and other rodents; here 

 various species of lizard^s and snakes dart through the thickets when 

 scared from their sunny beds. The lagoons furnish other reptiles; 

 swarms of ducks and various kinds of water-fowl resort to their slimy 

 waters; the woods are enlivened with great numbers of birds, all of 

 which furnish to the diiferent species of hawks their favorite prey. 



" The remarkable species which heads this article I discovered in this 

 locality ; it is entirely new to me, and I have not yet seen it mentioned 

 in any volume at my command ; the specimen has been sent to the 

 irrational Institution at Washington for identification. The flight of this 

 hawk seems rather heavy, resembling somewhat the common fish-hawk, 

 the wings appearing very broad and the tail remarkably short. Upon 

 examining the contents of the stomach, after skinning it, I found only 

 the remains of fish, one of which had been but freshlj- devoured ; it was 

 a species of perch found in the lagoons and rivers of this region,"— [Col. 

 A. J. Grayson, in Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 1874, p. 302, | 



