:::::::::«£ CAMPING IN A BARRANCA m::::::::: 



shows notes of species again and again repeated, the 

 impression which each new assemblage made being so 

 vivid and unexpected. The train once passed slowly 

 over a low, rough bridge thrown across a marsh, and 

 in an adjoining pool we noted the following birds, most 

 of the species represented by scores of individuals, the 

 surface of the water and the shore literally covered 

 with them ; Coots, Mexican Cormorants, Lesser Scaup 

 and Mallard Ducks, Shovellers and Blue-winged Teal, 

 two species of Grebes, Gallinules, Jacanas, Green Her- 

 ons, Great Blue Herons, Black-necked Stilts, Glossy 

 Ibises, and American Egrets ! Fifteen splendid species 

 of water and wading-birds feeding together in apparent 

 harmony, with a fearlessness of man which it would be 

 hard to find within the boundaries of our own Republic. 



At last in the far distance there loomed a tall jagged 

 peak flecked with snow, and we were told that we were 

 looking at the snow mountain of mighty Colima, at 

 present hiding her sister of fire. As we backed swiftly 

 down into the terminal station at Tuxpan, the con- 

 ductor chanced to see a pile of stones which some play- 

 ful (?) Mexican had piled upon the track, and the 

 air-brakes stopped us just in the nick of time. Such 

 pranks (!) are not uncommon, it is said. 



Tuxpan will remain long in our memories of pleasant 

 places in Mexico. Our hostesses of the Hotel Central 

 were kindness itself, perhaps because l.a Senorita 

 Americana seemed to them the personification of femi- 



- *4 123 -^ 



