THE CONDOR. 
Bulletin of the Cooper Ornithological Club. 
A Br-MoN'THi,Y Kxponent of Californian Ornithology. 
Voi. 3. No. 2. Santa Clara, Cal., March-April, 1901. $ 1 .00 a Year 
Two Years With Mexican Birds. I. Oiraud’s Flycatcher. 
{^Myiozetetes texcnsis). 
By E. H. Skinner. 
[Read before the Northern Division of the Cooper Orn. Club, March 2, 1901.] 
F or two years I was located near 
Tapachula, in the state of Chiapas, 
Mexico. This is the southernmost 
point of the Mexican republic, and 
properly speaking in Central America, 
as it is .south of the isthmus of Tehuan- 
tepec. Tapachula is in nearl}" the same 
longitude as St. Rouis and in the same 
latitude as .southern (Guatemala and 
northern Honduras. 
Along the coa.st there is a belt of low- 
lands averaging thirty miles in width, 
and back of tliis belt the 
mountains rise abruptly to 
an elevation of ten thousand 
feet. The lowlands are cov- 
ered with almost impene- 
trable tropical jungles, with 
here and there patches of 
dreary, treeless, uninhab- 
ited plains covered with 
coarse grass. The heat on 
the.se plains is intense and burning, and 
even in the shady jungle it is suffo- 
cating. 
All day long there is an almost un- 
broken silence. The insects can hardly 
get up energy to chirp. The Turkey 
and Black Vultures sit motionless on 
the limbs of some dead tree or circle 
lazil}" in the air. The egret roosts in 
the shade along the sloughs. The Mot- 
mot in the jungle sits on a branch and 
at long intervals utters his coot, coot in a 
heavy bass, but toward nightfall the 
chachalaca, the parrots and macaws vie 
with each other in making the evening 
hideous with their discordant cries. 
Going inland the temperature grows 
lower as we ascend the foothills, and 
when we reach an elevation of 5,000 
feet the distinctively tropical trees have 
disappeared, as well as the lowland 
birds. Here among the semi-tropical 
forests of oak, palms and countless other 
trees, is the home of the Ouesal (Pharo- 
tuacriis mocinno), the nation- 
al bird of Guatemala, which 
pines away and dies if denied 
its liberty. Among these 
woods are clearings planted 
to coffee. This semi-tropical 
country along the mountain- 
.side is called the coffee belt. 
Near the summit there are 
forests of pine, but on 
the plateau and higher volcan- 
oes the trees are stunted, it being 
very hot in the daytime and freezing at 
night. Here we find bluejays, crows, 
killdeers and other birds of a temperate 
clime. Having spent most of my time 
in the coffee belt, I am more familiar 
with its birds than with those of other 
sections, so I shall try to describe its 
most noticeable bird, Giraud’s Flycatch- 
er texensis), which although 
not the commonest variety, is the most 
E. H. skinner. 
