NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE. 



Vol. IV. APEIL, 1897. No. 1. 



NOTES ON THE LOCALITIES VISITED BY 0. T. BARON 



IN NORTHEEN PERU AND ON THE TROGHILIDAE 



FOUND THERE. 



By O. T. baron. 



(Plate I.) 



SOJME of the localities mentioned in the following notes are referred to in the 

 first paper on the birds collected by me in Peru, and published by Mr. Salvin 

 in the second volume of this journal (Nov. Zool. II. pp. 1-22). The rest will be 

 included in a second paper shortly to appear. 



I paid special attention to the humming-birds wherever I was, and the following 

 observations on them will, I hope, prove of interest. 



PACASMAYO. 



Pacasmayo, the seaport of Cajamarca, is situated on the beach, so that waves 

 of exceptional size wash into some of the houses facing the ocean. It is a place 

 of very little interest, being built upon sand-dunes without vegetation. 



This causes a great scarcity of birds in the immediate vicinity of the town. 

 I saw only a few sparrows and one humming-bird during my stay there. The 

 humming-bird, Amuzilia leucophaai, was seen feeding from a few flowers, raised 

 in pots and boxes in the hotel garden. 



I remained only one night, and took the weekly train in the morning for the 

 interior, arriving at Tembladera, 54 km. distant, after a ride of four hours. 



TEMBLADERA. 



Tembladera is located on a large dry tract near the liver Yonan. Nothing grows 

 away from the ditches excepting cacti and some desert-bushes. Over the irrigated 

 parts grow various trees, and rice is the principal cereal in the bottoms. 



The large cactus, not unlike one of Arizona, differing, however, from it by having 

 small pink flowers along the sides of the stems, instead of white ones on the crown 

 as in the latter, furnishes the source of the principal food oi Rhodopis atacaniensis, 

 not only while in blossom, but also when the fruit is ripe and partly eaten by ants 

 or birds. 



The flowers are first visited by these humming-birds so early in the morning that 

 one can hardly distinguish them when feeding. They continue to feed till 9 a.m., 

 when the flowers close in the hot sun, to partly open again after 4 p.m. 



Hipe fruit exists nearly at all times, and grows to the size of a small apple. It 



1 



