st
and unknown races. The sun went down, and the gloom of night gathered
over the great plain, emblematic of the fortunes and the fate of its
ancient inhabitants.

CHAPTER XVI.

Departure from Mani.--Ornithology of Yucatan.--Discoveries of Doctor
Cabot.--Village of Tixmeach.--Peto.--Church and Convent.--News
from Home.--Don Pio Perez.--Indian Almanac.--A Fragment of Maya
Manuscript.--Journey resumed.--Taihxiu.--Yaxcala.--Piste.--Arrival
at Chichen.--First Sight of the Ruins.--The Hacienda.--A strange
Reception.--Lodgings.--Situation of the Ruins.--Mr. Burke.--Magnificent
Appearance of the Ruins.--Derivation of the Word
Chichen.--Senotes.--Different from those before presented.--Mischievous
Boys.--Failure of the Corn Crop.

Monday, March 7. Before daylight the next morning we left Mani.

Our present mode of travelling favoured Doctor Cabot's particular
objects. His best chance for procuring birds was always on the road,
the time passed at ruins, on account of the density of the woods and
underbrush, being in a great measure lost to him. Yucatan had never
before been explored ornithologically; or, to speak more correctly, the
only person who had given any attention to that branch of its natural
history, a German, died in the country; his collections were scattered
and his notes lost. Doctor Cabot's field of operations, therefore, was,
like our own entirely new; and our attention being constantly directed
to the brilliant plumage of the birds and their interesting habits,
they became identified with the purposes of our journey. It was my
intention to obtain from Doctor Cabot, and publish in this work, a full
essay on the ornithology of the country, but I find my materials so
abundant and my volumes growing to such a bulk that compression has
become a work of serious necessity.

Doctor Cabot has published, in the Boston Journal of Natural History,
an account of his observations upon one rare and splendid bird, the
ocellated turkey, of which one stuffed specimen at the Jardin des
Plantes, and another in the collection of the Earl of Derby, are the
only two known to exit, and of which, besides obtaining a stuffed
specimen, we succeeded in transporting two living birds from the
interior, and embarking them for home, but lost them overboard on the
voyage. I have hopes that he may be induced to publish a full account
of his observations upon the ornithology of Yucatan. In the mean tim