346 ANIMAL FIGURES IN THE MAYA CODICES 



instead of the prominent occipital tuft of this bird. The 

 crest and particularly the pointed tail feathers and long beak 

 combined with the characteristic coloring seem to leave 

 little doubt as to the identity of the species figured. This 

 bird does not seem to appear in the Maya drawings. 



Raven (Corvus corax sinuatus) (?). There occurs in the 

 Nuttall Codex a figure of a large black bird (PL 27, fig. 7) , 

 which may be a black vulture, but which, from the presence 

 of what appear as prominent bristles over the nostril, may 

 also be a raven. These bristles are rather prominent in 

 ravens and quite lacking in the vulture, so that we are led 

 to identify the drawing as representing the former bird. 

 We have found no other figures that suggest ravens. 



Miscellaneous Birds. Four drawings of birds from 

 the Aubin manuscript are shown here (PI. 27, figs. 8-11), 

 in order that the conventionalization of the bird form may 

 be seen. The first two are supposed to represent the parrot 

 (cocho) and the last two the turkey cock (uexolotl). There 

 is little in the drawings by which they can be differentiated- 

 In the codex, the heads of the parrots are colored red. There 

 is no doubt, however, about the identification, as they occur 

 in the same relative position on every page of the manuscript 

 and are two of the thirteen birds associated with the thirteen 

 gods, the "Lords of the House of Day" (Seler, 1900-1901, 

 pp. 31-35). From the foregoing, it may be seen that where 

 there is no question about the identification, the drawing of 

 the bird form is rather carelessly done and no great attempt 

 is made to indicate the special characteristics of the different 

 birds. 



As has been shown previously, it is not always possible 

 to identify without question many of the forms appearing 

 in the manuscripts. This is especially true with birds. In 

 Tro-Cortesianus 20c, an unidentifiable bird, painted blue, 

 appears on the top of the staff carried by god F. The head- 

 dress of this same god in Tro-Cortesianus 27c is a bird form 

 and in Tro-Cortesianus 55b, the tonalamatl figure is a bird 

 whose identity cannot be made out with certainty. 



