ITZ-TLOH-TLI, literally, “obsidian falcon,” Bat Falcon (Falco rufigularis) [FC: 44-45 Itztlhotli] “Or else [it is called] ‘reed falcon.’ Its name is [also] gavilán . It is named “reed falcon” or “obsidian falcon” because its bill is quite long and narrow, like an obsidian point. Its feathers are quite smoky, dark. And its tail is somewhat long, white mingled [with black]…. All these obsidian falcons and reed falcons hunt only birds which go flying up – quail, dove.… Only from time to time do they hunt ducks…. The obsidian falcon: its name is also tletleuhtzin. It is small, bold; a whirrer; a bird of prey {TLAHUITEQUINI}.” Martin del Campo identified this falcon as the Merlin (Falco columbarius) which is possible. However, given that other names are ascribed to the Merlin, this might rather refer to the Bat Falcon (Falco rufigularis). See also YOHUAL-TLOH-TLI, NECUILIC-TLI.
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 11 – Earthly Things, no. 14, Part XII, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1963); Rafael Martín del Campo, “Ensayo de interpretación del Libro Undecimo de la Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España de Fray Bernardino de Sahagún – 11 Las Aves (1),” Anales del Instituto de Biología Tomo XI, Núm. 1 (México, D.F., 1940); and, with quotation selections, synthesis, and analysis here also appearing in E. S. Hunn, "The Aztec Fascination with Birds: Deciphering Sixteenth-Century Sources," unpublished manuscript, 2022, cited here with permission.