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NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE, 



Vol. K. APRIL, 1902. No. 1. 



{ip^.^'i^ ON THE BIRDS OF THE ORINOCO REGION. 



By count HANS VON BERLEPSCH and EKNST HARTERT. 



(Plate XII.) 



THE following articles are principally based on the extensive collections of 

 lieantifully prepared birdskins brought together in 1897, 1898 and 1899 by 

 Mr. George K. Cherrie and Mrs. Stella Cherrie on the Orinoco River. 



The first station was made at Altagracia, about 16iJ miles west of (Jindad 

 Bolivar or Angostura, the well-known capital of the Orinoco province. The country 

 at Altagracia, as near Ciudad Bolivar, is vast rolling prairie. Then the collectors 

 liroceeded to Quiribana de Caicara and Caicara, farther uj) the river. The country 

 there is already very hilly. From Caicara Mr. Cherrie followed the Orinoco, which 

 there turns to the south, till Ferico. Perico is near the former site of Atures. The 

 latter jdace, according to Mr. Cherrie, no longer exists, except on maps. Atures 

 was above the first rapids in the Orinoco, while Perico is just below them. The 

 country for a radius of six or eight miles round Perico is exceedingly arid. " Nothing 

 but bare rock, large areas without vegetation." There are, however, a few wooded 

 valleys, but the chief resort for birds is the unhealthy, narrow strip of woods along 

 the Orinoco. The next station where Mr. (Jherrie collected is BEaipures, not very 

 far from Perico ; then follows HEuudnapo. This place, and the country farther up 

 the river to the San Fernando de Atabapo region, is very diflereut IVom all the 

 former places visited. The fauna presented to the collector a very different aspect. 

 The country is dense virgin forest, mostly land that is flooded when the river is at 

 its highest. Mr. Cherrie writes in one of his letters that Munduapo was the first 

 place where he found the Formicariidne numerous, both in species and in individuals. 

 Only a few birds were collected farther upwards than Munduapo, but from the latter 

 place the collector, though much hampered by fever and revolution, sent a fair 

 collection. 



Mr. Cherrie also sent some nests and eggs, wliich are most conscientiously 

 collected and in every case accompanied by the parent birds. 



The skins have been divided between the Rothschild and the Berlejisch 

 Museums, unique specimens, however, being in the former collection, where also 

 the nests and eggs are preserved. The latter have been described (by Hartert) 

 in every case, whether formerly known or not. 



Besides the Cherrie collection, the Triug Museum has received a considerable 

 number of skins from Mr. Samuel M. Klages. They are partly from Ciudad Bolivar 

 or Angostura, partly from a place called Suapure, on the Caura River. 



Quite recently the Tring Museum has also received a collection of 1800 skins 

 from La Fricion, the ITicare (Nichare), a tributary of the Caura, and La Union, on 

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