NORTHWESTERN MEXICO. 297 



a handsome and well known species in western Mexico, inhabiting the region of tierras calientes, or western 

 slope of the Cordilleras, more abundant near the seacoast than the mountainous regions, and its geographical 

 distribution extends from southern Sonora to Tehuantepec, and perhaps farther south. They are gregarious, 

 assembling in large flocks, and are more numerous in the region of Mazatlan than any other portion of the 

 country that I have visited. The forests in some localities, particularly where some kinds of fruit are in sea- 

 son, appear at times to be alive with them, only in the morning and evening, however, when they are seeking 

 for their favorite food ; they are then flying hither and thither through the woods, or perching and climbing 

 among the branches that contain the fruit they are in search of, keeping up at the same time an incessant 

 . din of chattering, and this, mingled with the loud and harsh screams of the large green macaws, pro- 

 duces a very discordant and disagreeable forest music. They often visit the cornfields or milpas in great 

 numbers, about the time the green corn or maize commences to mature, committing great depredations, and 

 often destroying the small milpas of the natives unless they are guarded. 



" If taken from their nest before they are fledged, they may be taught to pronounce some words very dis- 

 tinctly, as well as sing and whistle tunes. Their season for incubation commences in the latter part of March, 

 or early part of April, at which time they quietly divide ofi" into pairs and seek a hollow in some large tree, 

 where they deposit their eggs without any more nest than the bare rotten wood, which is generally smoothed 

 off a little by the birds, both of which perform an equal part in the task of incubation ; the eggs, two in 

 number, are a clear white ; the young are fed by the parents for some time after they are able to fly. The pair 

 from the same nest generally remain together through life. By an extraordinary provision of nature, it is 

 seldom (if ever) that the young are of the same sex, but always male and female. 



" It is the presumption of many that parrots do not drink water in their wild state, but this is a mistake ; 

 they have their watering places, which is on some secluded brook overhung with trees, where they go about 

 the hour of ten or eleven, a.m., to drink, and often bathe also." 



172. Psittacula cyanopyga De Souanc6. 



« " Proc. Bost. Soc. of N. H., xiv, p. 271. 



« " Finsch, Abh. nat. Ver. zu Bremen, 1870, p. 353. 



Mazatlan, Grayson, Bisclioff ; Tres Marias, Grayson ; Manzanilla Bay, Xantus. 



«The smallest of parrots, and quite abundant in the region of Mazatlan and the Tres Marias Islands; they 

 associate in considerable flocks ; their flight is much like a flock of common rice birds ; resident." 



Fam. Steigid^. 



173. Speotyto cunicularia var. hypogcea (Bp.). 



Athene cunicularia Proc. Bost. Soc. of N. H., xiv, p. 270. 

 Tres Marias, Mazatlan, Grayson. 



" Found usually along the open sea beach at night in search of small crabs, upon which it chiefly subsists in 

 the Marias ; also met with upon the main-land in this locality," 



174. Micrathene whitneyi (Cooper). 



« " Proc. Bost. Soc. of N. H., xiv, p. 300. 



Socorro Island, Grayson. 



« Three specimens of this least of all owls were captured on the island. They were always found among 

 the branches of the evergreen low trees. It seems to feed entirely upon the small land crabs, which are 

 abundant near the sea." 



175. Glaucidium ferrugineum (Max.). 

 Mazatlan, Grayson. 



"A common species in this locality, and resident." 



UEUOIBS BOST. 800. WAT. HIST. VOL. II. 7B 



