ANIMAL FIGURES IN THE MAYA CODICES 345 



Kayab glyphs in the codices (PI. 14, fig. 10) resemble the 

 sign for a, in the Landa alphabet which seems to stand for 

 ak (turtle) , we are led to identify this as a turtle rather than 

 a parrot. 



The use of the macaw as a lightning beast has already 

 been commented upon. The parrot is also used in the co- 

 dices as a head-dress. As with several other birds the only 

 places in the manuscripts where the whole bird is shown is 

 in connection with the bearing of children and the baptism. 

 Here the parrot head-dress is seen on women, Dresden 16c 

 (PL 25, fig. 2) and Tro-Cortesianus 94c (PL 25, fig. 13). 

 There seems to be an exception to the whole bird appearing 

 as a head-dress exclusively with women in Tro-Cortesianus 

 26c (PL 26, fig. 1), where god F appears with a head-dress 

 composed of the whole bird. The bird is also seen as a head- 

 dress on Altar Q from Copan (PL 26, fig. 3). The head of 

 the macaw appears as part of the head-dress of god H in 

 Dresden 11a (PL 26, fig. 13), god E in Dresden lib (PL 26, 

 fig. 11), god F in Dresden 14b, god D in Tro-Cortesianus 

 89a (PL 26, fig. 5) and of women in Dresden 12b (PL 26, fig. 6) 

 and 19a (PL 26, fig. 9). In the rites of the four years in Tro- 

 Cortesianus 37b, there are two birds which are quite different 

 from those we have been considering, but which may repre- 

 sent macaws (PL 25, fig. 12; PL 26, fig. 10). 



In the Nuttall Codex, occur several figures of heavy- 

 billed birds that may be macaws or other smaller parrots 

 of the genera Amazona or Pachyrhynchus. They are not, 

 however, certainly identifiable (PL 26, figs. 4, 7). 



Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis). We 

 have here introduced two drawings from the Nuttall Codex 

 (PL 27, figs. 5, 6) which seem to represent the Imperial 

 ivory-billed woodpecker, a large species that occurs in the 

 forests of certain parts of Mexico. The figures show a long- 

 billed bird with acutely pointed tail feathers, a red crest, 

 and otherwise black and white plumage. The red crest of 

 the woodpecker is of course highly conventionalized in the 

 drawings where it is shown as of a number of erect feathers 



