No. 12. — An Ornithological Survey in the Caribbean Lowlands of Honduras By James L. Peters On the morning of 13 January 1928 Mr. Edward Bangs of Boston and I landed at Tela, Honduras, for the purpose of making an orni-thological survey of the general region about Tela and particularly the Lancetilla Valley. Here, in cooperation with Dr. Wilson Popenoe, Director of Agri-cultural Experiments of the United Fruit Company, various scientists, representing different fields of biological interests, have been invited to make field investigations under unusually favorable conditions. At Tela we were met by Mr. Rufus K. Thomas, Division Manager, who welcomed us most cordially and placed practically the entire facilities of the company at our disposal. That same afternoon we were taken out to Lancetilla and assigned quarters and working space in a comfortable and well-equipped house, and mess privileges with the staff of the Experiment Station at the office about half a mile away. The Lancetilla valley is the name now applied to the valley of the Tela River, a short stream originating in the hills about seven miles from the coast and flowing northward between two ridges that ter-minate rather abruptly about half a mile from the shore. The highest point on the ridge forming the eastern rim of the valley is about 1,800 feet, while the western side is little, if any, over 1,000 feet. The valley floor at the northern end, where it joins the coastal plain, is about three quarters of a mile in width, gradually becoming narrower towards the upper end, until it is no wider than the river itself. The lower reaches of the river are deep and sluggish, the middle stretches swift and shallow with a sandy bottom, while the upper portion is a mountain stream tumbling down the hillside over rocks and boulders. The flat portion of the valley, from its mouth to a point about four miles inland, has long ago been denuded of the forest. In its place were planted cocoanut palms, but these have also been removed and bananas substituted. With the development of land elsewhere more suited to bananas, the plantations in the valley have been abandoned and the land is reverting to characteristic second growth jungle. The northern ends of both east and west ridges have long ago been cleared and con-verted to pastures of guinea grass, and except for the gentler slopes or stream beds have remained in this condition. The western slopes have
BioStor
