ART. 25] NOTES ON HISPANIOLAN BIRDS — WETMORE AND LINCOLN 5 



At dawn the following day we were awakened by the songs of a great 

 multitude of gray robins. Two pack animals were exhausted and 

 were left behind in the care of a native, while their burdens were taken 

 by porters. These arrangements took so much time that it was after 

 11 o'clock before we were moving through pleasant sunshine down to 

 three crossings of the Riviere des Roseaux (pi. 1), w^here the fords 

 followed ledges of rock along which our animals scrambled hke goats 

 with narrow escape from slipping into the deeper water at either side. 

 The stream was at 680 meters elevation, and on leaving it we traveled 

 up steep slopes where a multitude of trails led through tangled scrub, 

 causing much discussion among the men as to the proper one to follow, 

 until we were again at 900 meters altitude. Occasional ridges were 

 grown with pine, but this was not abundant. Gray robins, hone}^- 

 creepers, and an occasional migrant warbler were noted from our 

 mules. We heard the calls of narrow-billed todies and trogons, and 

 parrots and pigeons were abundant. We remarked on the entire 

 absence of crows and paroquets. At 3:15 we came to the half dozen 

 huts marking the settlement of Desbarriere, on a narrow ridge at an 

 elevation of 985 meters. In view of the uncertainty as to what was 

 ahead of us, we stopped here for the night, obtaining the use of a little 

 hut where we were very comfortable. The steep-sided ridges at this 

 point were cultivated, having little natural forest except on the highest 

 hills. Beyond a narrow, pine-covered ridge, opposite our caye, we 

 had glimpses through driving clouds of fog of the huge bulk of the 

 Pic de Macaya (pi. 2), its forest-covered slopes appearing dark and 

 mysterious through the shifting veil of mist, which finally closed into 

 a blank wall of cloud and spread across to where we ourselves were 

 standing. 



The following morning, April 1 1 , we awoke to a drizzling rain that 

 made the clay soil of the steep trails slippery and treacherous. Finally 

 the sun appeared, and in due time we were under way; we climbed 

 with difficulty to the summit of a hill at 1,090 meters elevation, con- 

 tinued across these high slopes to Amiel, and descended finally to the 

 Riviere Anglais, where at the little group of cayes called La Cour 

 Z'Anglais w^e came to the end of trails that mules could travel. We 

 camped here in a box canyon beside the stream at an elevation of 

 only 565 meters. The following morning it was necessary to secure 

 porters to continue our journey, which occasioned some difficulty, as, 

 though arrangements had been made at Desbarriere for a number of 

 men, they appeared under the leadership of a wily old gentleman who 

 demanded an exhorbitant price for their services which we refused to 

 pay. It was afternoon before we w^ere finally on our way with part of 

 our outfit, leaving the rest in storage at La Cour Z'Anglais. 



Rain began to fall as w^e started, and we climbed with difficulty over 

 narrow trails that led up and down through coffee plantations, little 



