6 FIELD COLUMBIAN MUSEUM ORNITHOLOGY, VOL. i. 



sick with fever that he could not walk. I started back toward Santo 

 Domingo City, but on the morning of March 2, arriving at Catare, I 

 found it would be impossible to continue without giving him a rest. 

 On March 7 my packing cases were overflowing with bird skins and 

 the guide being a little better I made another start cityward. 



A few days' collecting about San Domingo City, a laying in of 

 a fresh supply of provisions and materials, the securing of my third 

 guide and servant, and I was once more ready for the road. 



A day's travel westward from the capital through a rather barren 

 region, but one pretty well populated, carried me to the busiest, or 

 least somnolent, of the inland towns on the Caribbean slope. San 

 Cristobal is located on the Nigua River at the foot of Mount Barbacoa 

 rather pleasantly situated, comparatively a clean place and a light- 

 colored population. 



Excursions were made in various directions about San Cristobal, 

 to the summit of Mount Barbacoa about 7,000 feet altitude where 

 is to be found the crumbling remains of the walls of an old fort, and 

 to the caves in the sides of the mountain called El Calabosa. 



I would scarcely know how to describe these caves. There is no 

 grandeur about them and little of beauty. They are only " immense. " 

 In going through them, one moment the passage narrows until you 

 can barely squeeze through; again one must get down on hands and 

 knees and crawl, then farther on the passage may widen into an 

 immense vaulted chamber. 



In only one of the many caves or series of chambers entered were 

 bats at all common. This chamber called Cuervo de los Murcielagos 

 (cave of the bats) was inhabited by thousands upon thousands of 

 these symbols of the diabolical. When they were disturbed by our 

 entrance, and by my firing several shots, the noise made by the count- 

 less wings gave one as a first sensation the peculiar feeling attendant 

 on a slight earthquake shock. The floor of this chamber was covered 

 with a thick layer of manure. Two species of bats were found inhab- 

 iting these caves, and a Roof Rat was shot far from the entrance in 

 another.* 



I spent a night on Mount Barbacoa at the rancho of a "peon" and 

 here met with hospitality for the first time in the island. When I 

 offered tp pay for my night's lodging I was surprised at being told I 

 owed only su buena voluntad de U! (only your good wishes!) 



At this point my guide was taken sick and I was delayed for a 

 few days, but securing another man I was again on the road March 



*A list of the mammals collected on the expedition will be published by Prof. D, G, Elliot, of 

 the Field Col. Mus, 



