276 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



ing constantly directed to the brilliant plumage of 

 the birds and their interesting habits, thej became 

 identified with the purposes of our journey. It was 

 my intention to obtain from Doctor Cabot, and pub- 

 lish in this work, a full essay on the ornithology of 

 the country, but I find my materials so abundant 

 and my volumes growing to such a bulk that com- 

 pression has become a work of serious necessity. 



Doctor Cabot has published, in the Boston Jour- 

 nal of Natural History, an account of his observa- 

 tions upon one rare and splendid bird, the ocellated 

 turkey, of which one stulfed specimen at the Jardin 

 des Plantes, and another in the collection of the 

 Earl of Derby, are the only two known to exist, and 

 of which, besides obtaining a stuffed specimen, we 

 succeeded in transporting two living birds from the 

 interior, and embarking them for home, but lost 

 them overboard on the voyage. I have hopes that 

 he may be induced to publish a full account of his 

 observations upon the ornithology of Yucatan. In 

 the mean time I give in the Appendix a memoran- 

 dum of about one hundred birds observed by him in 

 that country, which are also found within the United 

 States, and have been figured and described by 

 Wilson, Bonaparte, Audubon, and Nuttall ; of oth- 

 ers, which are well known to the scientific world 

 for their striking brilliancy of plumage, having been 

 observed in different parts of South and Central 

 America, but are known only by skins prepared and 

 sold in the country, and whose habits have never 



