K. Selander, 1953 Tonalá, Chiapas, México Oct. 24 Met the Presidente at about 7:30 in the Plaza. He assigned a guide - a near-idiot whose name I didn't get. He claimed to know the Chacoacas and said they were "common" arriba so we climbed up into the foothills through cornfields to the edge of a deciduous forest not unlike that around Tuxtla. No birds seen or heard and no nests seen. Up on the hill the stupid guide said they were "rare" here. We followed down the stream bed of the "Rio Seco" for a long distance and then followed the Rio Santo Domingos south along the edge of Tuxtla. From the foothills I could see the ocean to the south - hand looks perfectly level from Tonalá to the ocean - I would put the elevation of the town at 180 ft., as on the air map - not 500 feet as given by Goldman. We found very little skull-thorn acacia along the Rio Seco - which is only 10-15 feet wide with very little water. Along the Rio Santo Domingos there is more acacia. Took a Pteroglossus torquatus from a large tree near the Rio Seco just north of the town. Saw another there. Many Cassisula melanictes, groove-billed ani, hummingbirds, Calocitta - few heard, Setona gularis, warblers, small flycatchers. Took a green iguana and another lizard. The iguana was shot from a tree above a pond of stagnant water.