A number of glyphs representing the turtle are found throughout the codices (Pl. 14, figs. 7-10). They are all characterized by the heavy beak. It may be noted that these glyphs are virtually the same as the sign for the first _a_ in Landa's alphabet. As the turtle is called _ak_ or _aak_ in Maya, the reason is clear for the selection of this sign for an _a_ sound. These turtle glyphs often occur alone; one, however, (Pl. 14, fig. 7) is found in connection with the swimming turtle in Tro-Cortesianus 17a (Pl. 14, fig. 3). Figs. 7-9 agree in having the small scrolls at the posterior end of the eye. The head shown in Pl. 14, fig. 10, has quite a different eye, though otherwise similar. Its resemblance to the glyph on Pl. 25, fig. 9, is marked and suggests the parrot. Schellhas (1904, p. 44) gives in his fig. 64, a glyph for the turtle which seems clearly to be a glyph for the parrot (Pl. 25, fig. 7). AVES HERONS (_Ardea herodias_; _Hydranassa tricolor ruficollis_). Only a few water birds are shown in the Maya works. Several are found, however, that seem to picture herons (Pl. 15, figs. 1-7). The best of these (fig. 5), a carving from the west side panel of the Temple of the Cross at Palenque shows a crested heron standing on one foot and holding in its bill a fish. A second figure (Pl. 15, fig. 1) is from the stucco ornament from the Palace, House B, at Palenque. It is less carefully executed, but seems to be a long-necked bird with a crest and outspread wings curiously conventionalized. In the Nuttall Codex there is another unmistakable heron (Pl. 15, fig. 4) with the same general characteristics, though the crest is less prominent, here represented as a series of erectile feathers separated at their tips. This elongation of the crest seems to be carried still farther in what seems to be the head and neck of a heron from Dresden 37b (Pl. 15, fig. 3) with erectile feathers at intervals along its length. The heron is seldom employed as a head-dress. In the Lower Chamber of the Temple of the Tigers at Chichen Itza, one of the warriors wears a bird head-dress (Pl. 15, fig. 2), which from the length of the bill is probably made from a heron's head, though the crest seems greatly exaggerated. The bas-relief on which this is found is strongly Nahua in feeling and execution. This head covering may indicate, according to the Nahua fashion, the tribe to which the warrior belongs. Again in Dresden 36a (Pl. 15, fig. 7), a man is shown wearing as a head-dress the head and neck of a heron that holds in its bill a fish. This head resembles very closely that of the heron in fig. 1. What appears to be a similar head is shown in Pl. 15, fig. 6. It is interesting to note that the heron with a fish (Pl. 15, fig. 5) from Palenque also forms a part of a complicated head-dress.