1392 
Hairnets in 
(Miohoacan) 
that it had been learned that strangers "were said to be encamped upon 
the community lands and as their business was unknown, he commanded 
the duly commissioned bearer to come and investigate the motives of 
our presence, I explained the object of our visit and showed them the 
specimens at hand and informed them that I had a letter in my baggage 
left at town from the Governor of the State recommending me to the 
local authorities* This was evidently satisfactory, and we were 
troubled no further. 
precautionary 
the lands here are held by the community under the direction of the 
Ayuntaaiento or council elected in the village and under certain laws 
of the country unoccupied lands held in this way by communities may 
be surveyed, denounced, and bought of the Government, As a consequence, 
the communities of Indians who hold lands under such uncertain tenure 
are very suspicious of the presence of foreigners whose purposes are 
not known, I have heard of instances in which surveyors have been 
shot for attempting surveys in such places. 
In this locality, I found deer to be very scarce owing to the in¬ 
cessant noise kept up by the watchman in the fields, but was gratified 
to find the great ivory-bill (C, imperially ) common. 
Our camp was at the foot of a very sharply rising ridge covered with 
an abundant growth of pines. Every morning at dawn the querulous notes 
of these birds oould be heard as they greeted the sun from trees about 
the summit, I found that they made a practice at this time of feeding 
on insects found by chipping away the tops of rotten logs on •(die hill¬ 
side, Then, as the sun ascended, they flew out and spent the day 
wandering about among the scattered and often dead pines over a partly 
cultivated bench a mile or so across and the adjaoent hillslopes. 
They were not particularly shy and 7 were killed on this bench during 
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