Editorial 83 
Bird: Lore 
A Bi-monthly Magazine 
Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 
Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 
Published by D. APPLETON & CO. 
Vol. XII Published April 1, 1910 No. 2 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES 
Price in the United States, Canada and Mexico twenty cents 
a number, one dullar a year, postage paid. 
COPYRIGHTED, 1910, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 
Bird-Lore’s Motto; 
A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand 
WHERE in all the world can one dis- 
cover in so restricted an area, a wider range 
ot attractions than those which are to be 
found in that portion of Mexico lying be- 
tween Vera Cruz and Mexico 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 epitome 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 zo6logist and particularly to the stu- 
dent. of the geographical distribution of 
life. 
For the archzologist there are ruins 
which evince a higher degree of aboriginal 
civilization than has been found elsewhere 
in America, and for the ethnologis tnatives 
sufficiently isolated to retain their tribal 
customs and afford problems of funda- 
mental importance, in connecting the 
present with the past. 
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 Empire of 
Maximilian, the campaign of Scott, 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 and 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 mounta‘ns 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. 
