) is an important species in the Maya economy, and is seen frequently in the manuscripts. This is a smaller bird than the more northern true turkey (Meleagris) and is characterized by the presence of curious erect knobs on the top of the naked head. These are shown in conventionalized form in the various figures ([Pl. 16]), and afford a ready means of identification. On the bill of the bird shown in Tro-Cortesianus 10b ([Pl. 16], fig. 2) occurs again the curious symbol, a circle surrounded by dots, previously noted under the frigate-bird and pelican. It probably has some special significance. Other figures of ocellated turkeys show but little in addition to the points just discussed. One shown in [Pl. 16], fig. 7, from Codex Vaticanus 3773, however, has a circular ring about the eye and the wattles are indicated as projections merely. In fig. 13, they are apparently shown as stalked knobs found elsewhere in connection with serpent head ornaments. It is only the head in this latter figure, which is considered in this interpretation.
In the Nuttall Codex, there frequently occur representations of a bird that was evidently used for sacrificial purposes. It is shown with erectile head feathers and a ring of circular marks about the eye ([Pl. 26], figs. 12, 14; [Pl. 27], figs. 2-3) or with concentric circles ([Pl. 27], fig. 1). These figures are not surely identifiable, but probably represent this turkey. Possibly they are the chachalaca (Ortalis vetula pallidiventris), a gallinaceous bird, commonly kept in semi-domestication in Mexico, whose bare eye ring and slightly erectile head feathers may be represented by the drawings. It is probable that this turkey is the bird represented frequently in the Maya codices as a bird of sacrifice. The head alone usually appears in this connection, among other places, in Dresden 34a ([Pl. 16], fig. 10), 41c (fig. 14), 29c (fig. 16), 28c (fig. 17), and in Tro-Cortesianus 12b ([Pl. 16], fig. 11), 105b (fig. 12), 107b (fig. 15). In several of these places the head is represented as resting on one or more Kan signs, again meaning bread, as well as on the vessel or jar. In Dresden 26c ([Pl. 16], fig. 9), the whole turkey is pictured as an offering, as in the preceding case noted in Dresden 35a ([Pl. 15], fig. 9). The whole bird as an offering may also appear in Tro-Cortesianus 4a ([Pl. 16], fig. 4) corresponding to the offering of venison and iguana on the following pages. This representation of the entire bird is very rare although the fish, when used as an offering, is always represented as a whole and the iguana is in most cases when used in the same connection. Landa (1864, p. 222)[327-*] confirms the offering of the heads of birds with bread.
It is, however, the sacrifice of a bird, probably a turkey, by decapitating, that is especially interesting, as the operation as shown in the Dresden Codex 25c ([Pl. 26], fig. 2), 26c, 27c, 28c, in the rites of the four years, is described in full by Landa. In the codex, a priest is represented as holding in his hand before an altar, a headless bird. Landa (1864, pp. 212, 218, 224, 228)[327-†] tells us that in the Kan, the Muluc, the Ix, and the Cauac years, the priests burnt incense to the idol, decapitated a “gallina” (undoubtedly a turkey), and presented it to the god.
The turkey is also used as a head-dress. Only in one case, however, Tro-Cortesianus 95c ([Pl. 16], fig. 5), is the whole bird represented in this connection. This is clearly of totemic significance here, as it occurs in that part of the codex where birth and infant baptism are shown. In many other places there are curious partial representations of bird heads in the front of head-dresses which may or may not be identified as heads of turkeys. Among these are the head-dress of god H in Dresden 7c, of god E in Dresden 11e, of god C in Dresden 13b, of god A in Dresden 23c, and a female divinity in Dresden 20a ([Pl. 16], fig. 13). Schellhas (1904, p. 43) identifies these birds as vultures.
That the turkey is connected with the rain seems clear. This is especially the case among the Nahuas. In the Aubin manuscript the rain god, Tlaloc, often appears in the disguise of the turkey-cock (uexolotl), and in the Vaticanus 3773, 14, the turkey ([Pl. 16], fig. 7) is represented in the “House of Rain,” in contrast to the owl shown in the “House of Drought” (Seler, 1902-1903, p. 75). It might be noted also that Fewkes (1892, p. 228) shows that the turkey is emblematic of the rain among the pueblo peoples. The same idea seems to be present among the Mayas, as we note in the Tro-Cortesianus 10b ([Pl. 16], fig. 2) the turkey is pictured in the rain and surrounded on three sides by bands of constellation signs.
Two methods of capturing the turkey are shown in the Tro-Cortesianus 93a and 91a ([Pl. 16], figs. 1, 3). By the first, the bird is captured alive in a sort of wicker basket, which drops over it at the proper moment. The second method is by the “twich-up” or snare, which consists of a noose tied to a bent sapling and properly baited. In connection with [Pl. 16], fig. 1, it may be suggested that possibly this represents a cage rather than a trap, in which the bird is confined. The Lacandones at the present time often keep their totem animals in captivity (Tozzer, 1907, p. 40).
King Vulture (Sarcorhamphus papa). Numerous figures of vultures appear in the codices and elsewhere. Indeed, they are among the most common of the birds depicted. Two species only seem to occur in the writings, the king vulture and the black vulture. The former is a large black and white bird with the head and the upper part of the neck unfeathered, except for numerous short, almost bristle-like plumules. These naked portions are often colored red and there is a large more or less squarish fleshy knob at the base of the upper ramus of the beak. This conspicuous protuberance has been seized upon as a characteristic in the conventionalized figures, and serves to identify the king from the black vulture. In addition, a series of concentric circles about the eye seems to be a rather constant mark of the king vulture, though they are also sometimes found in connection with figures which, from the absence of the rostral knob, must represent black vultures ([Pl. 18], figs. 18, 27; [Pl. 19], figs. 7, 10, 11). In the case of the bird shown in [Pl. 19], fig. 1, the knob is hardly apparent, and the same is true of [Pl. 19], fig. 13. Both these may represent king vultures. A remarkable figure is that shown in [Pl. 17], fig. 4, in which an ocellated turkey and a king vulture confront each other with necks intertwined. The short hair-like black feathers of the head are represented in this as well as in [Pl. 17], fig. 11, and in the glyph carved in stone ([Pl. 17], fig. 10), which from the presence of the knob is probably a king vulture. The characteristic knob is shown in a variety of ways. Thus, in [Pl. 17], fig. 1, it is greatly developed and resembles a large horn with a falcate tip. In [Pl. 17], fig. 4, it is sharply angular and nearly square. Frequently, it is a circle with a centered ring surmounted by one or two additional rings or terminated by a mitre-shaped structure ([Pl. 17], figs. 2, 5-7, 8-12). A very simple form was found in the carving shown in [Pl. 17], fig. 13, where a long projecting knob is seen at the base of the culmen.
The king vulture seems to have a part to play as a mythological being, as it is pictured as a god with human body and bird head in the act of cohabiting with a woman in Dresden 19a, and with a dog in Dresden 13c ([Pl. 17], fig. 3). Moreover, the same vulture god is represented on a blue background and under a band of constellation signs in Dresden 38b, and is also to be noted in Dresden 8a. Förstemann (1906, p. 66) shows that the thirteenth day of the Maya month is reached in the tonalamatl reckoning at this place. This day is Cib, which corresponds to the Nahua day Cozcaquauhtli, which has the meaning vulture, and here, as previously noted, the vulture god is represented. In Tro-Cortesianus 22c ([Pl. 17], fig. 2) and 10a,[330-*] the king vulture appears alone, in the first instance with a blue background, and in the second with a background representing rain. Rain is also shown in connection with the vulture god in Dresden 38b, and the black vulture in Tro-Cortesianus 18b ([Pl. 19], fig. 13).
The king vulture is found employed as a head-dress twice out of the three times it appears in any connection with female figures, Tro-Cortesianus 26c ([Pl. 17], fig. 12) with male figure, and 94c ([Pl. 17], fig. 11) and 95c with female figures. The last two clearly have to do with the baptism and naming of infants, as previously explained.
The study of the glyph used to indicate the vulture is interesting, for we find it recurring again and again throughout the Maya codices and often when there is no other drawing of the animal, as in Dresden 39c ([Pl. 17], fig. 5; [Pl. 18], fig. 19). The first example (glyph 6) is clearly the head of the king vulture, whereas the second (glyph 3) is probably the head of the black vulture. The glyph in Dresden 38b ([Pl. 17], fig. 7) appears in connection with the vulture god directly below it. In Dresden 11b ([Pl. 18], fig. 1), it occurs alone and no figure appears in the usual place below. The Tun period glyph ([Pl. 17], fig. 10) frequently shows vulture characteristics especially in the nostril of the face. The teeth, however, often appearing in the Tun glyph would be against this theory. The blending of bird and mammal characteristics is not uncommon in the Maya drawings, however.