354 The National Geographic Magazine 



proached its base, the macaws launched 

 out from their perches and circled over- 

 head, shrieking their protest at our 

 presence. These birds commonly feed 

 far inland ; so their choice of a sea- 

 beaten rock for a nesting place neces- 

 sarily entails long daily flights to and 

 from their feeding ground, but it af- 

 fords absolute security for their eggs 

 and young. 



One's preconceived ideas of the tropics 

 are usually of a region overgrown with 

 luxuriant vegetation, always vividly 

 green, and spangled with flowers, bril- 

 liant birds, and insects. In the arid 

 tropics, however, quite the reverse is 

 true during the long dry season. The 

 length of the dry season is a controlling 

 factor in limiting vegetation to a more 

 or less stunted growth of jungle, includ- 

 ing many thorn-bearing species. The 

 low forests of the arid tropics are fre- 

 quently as leafless during the dry season 

 as northern deciduous forests in winter. 

 Along streams and in low areas, where 

 the underground water is near the sur- 

 face, the trees attain a much more 

 vigorous growth, and are vividly green 

 throughout the year. 



From Sihuatanejo we proceeded down 

 the coast to Acapulco. The road was a 

 narrow trail leading through endless 

 jungle, and connecting a series of squalid 

 villages standing in small clearings. 



With the exception of birds, animal 

 life was not much in evidence, although 

 the collared peccary and a species of 

 white-tailed deer was common. There 

 are many tales in hunting literature 

 of the fierceness of the peccaries, and 

 they are undoubtedly stubborn fighters 

 against any odds when brought to bay, 

 but, so far as my experience goes, they 

 appear to be much more dangerous in 

 books than in their native jungles. All 

 along the route to Acapulco we saw 

 among the bushes smoothly made little 

 roads, from which every leaf and twig 

 had been removed and the ground 

 cleaned as carefully as though swept 



each day. These roads were three or 

 four inches wide, and usually led to a 

 hole under a log or root, or sometimes 

 to a large nest of dry sticks two or three 

 feet high. The makers of these roads 

 and nests are small nocturnal rodents, 

 about the size of a house rat, which are 

 peculiar to the tropical forest of western 

 Mexico. The care with which they 

 keep their roads free from twigs and 

 other objects is surprising. 



Here and there along the coast occur 

 great ceiba or silk cotton trees. They 

 are the giants among the plant life of 

 this region, and among the noblest and 

 handsomest of tropical trees. The pods 

 of the silk cotton are large and well 

 filled with silky down, which is gathered 



Photo by Scott 



Moated Corn Crib, near Cuernavaca 



