2- Carriker—' exico. 
The slopes are very gentle up to 55500 feet,in many places large 
areas being almost flat,while the ridges and ravines are not precipitate* 
The soil everywhere consists of the same decomposed volcanic ash,in 
many places the soil itself being quite a thin covering over the coarse 
volcanic, ash- 
One characteristic is very outstanding,the almost total absence of 
streams or brooks,or even small springs of water- Apparently the abundant 
rainfall soaks down through the thick bed of ash and does not appear on 
the surface until far below. Besides the stream at El Tular there is only 
one other small trickle of water that I saw,which runs down a deep ravine 
over basaltic rock,near the point where the mule trail to the summit ends 
at the place they call "la cocina w . This is at the foot of the volcanic 
cone proper,and two hours ride from El Tular- 
At the time of my visit practically all of the birds were breeding, 
and consequently in full song,and. therefore much more conspicuous thaP 
they otherwise would have been. Probably the most abundant bird,all the 
way from 2500 feet to the summit,and particularly around the summit,was 
hyiadestes,its beautiful song,with many slight individual variations, 
being constantly heard,although the birds is rarely visible- Fenicorhina 
leucosticta is also fairly common. 
The ascent of the last 2,000 feet,on foot,is over a narrow path,very 
old apparently,which follows a narrow ridge. In some places it is very 
steep,but not everywhere. The ascent may be made in an hour by a good, 
experienced climber. 
The dense,tall forest ascends the slopes of the cone to within a few 
hundred feet of the rim of the crater,with the trees,reduced in size, 
continuing upward to the very rim’s edge,where they are more gnarled and 
twisted and thickly covered with moss- 
Extending from the edge of the woodland,down into the crater,is an 
almost impenetrable tangle of tough shrubbery,which changes lower down 
to forestgrowth of imposing porportions- 
The weather was very bad on the dajm of my first two ascents to the 
summit,with thick fog and rain,so that nothing was visible beyond a hundred 
feet,but the last ascent,on April 21st. was on a cloudless da?/,with the 
air washed clean of smoke. 
The point at which the trail emerges onto the rim of the crater proved 
to be the highest point of the volcano(middle of the south side),while 
the whole of the southern side of the rim is much higher than the north 
side,which gives a grand view across the summit to the lowlands to the 
north and the sea to the east. Unfortunatelydue to the configuration of 
of the land to the south,most of the view was cut off in that direction, 
towards 3ar Andres- 
The crater is approximately 1 l/4 miles across from east to west and 
about a mile in the opposite direction. The depth X would judge to be 
about 800 feet,at most. There are twoo small vents, with cones and craters, 
rising from the floor of the main crater. These are also completely 
forested,similiar to the rest of the crater,proof that their activity 
did not continue for any great length of time after the main eruption. 
There is one small area on the floor of the crater(perhaps 10 acres) 
which is almost bare of vegetat ion,with only a few small,scattered trees, 
while the exposed ash has a brownish appearance - 
The area above 5,500 feet is much too small to support a distinctive 
bird fauna,characteristic of that altitude. Hy three trips to the summit, 
and work around the rimn and on the slopes of the cone,yielded not a 
single species which was not to be found below,with possibly one except¬ 
ion :Basileuterus belli (bos .772-5 ) . This pair was taken near the summit, 
and a third~at about" B,000 feet. 
There were quite a number of migrant Warblers around the rim of the 
crater. ’ 'hether they had wintered there or dropped behind in a northward 
flight,it is difficult to say,but I rather think that the latter would 
