26 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



well as for our Institution. The several hundred birds that have 

 come to Washington as a result of this work add measurably to our 

 series, as our earlier investig'ations of the birds of Costa Rica did 

 not cover Guanacaste, On his return north at the end of Novem- 

 ber Dr. Wetmore had opportunity to spend a day in Habana, Cuba, 

 where he was received by representatives of the Cuban Government 

 and conferred with prominent scientists of the country. 



From March to May, 1941, Dr. Wetmore visited Colombia in con- 

 tinuation of the program mentioned for closer personal contact and 

 cooperation with scientists in our neighbor republics. In Bogota 

 he was received at the National University, where he worked par- 

 ticularly in the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales. He also conferred 

 with scientists who had been in attendance at the Eighth American 

 Scientific Congress in Washington the year previous, and visited 

 scientific workers with whom the Smithsonian Institution has been 

 in contact through correspondence for years. Following this, with 

 M. A. Carriker, Jr., as assistant, and accompanied by Dr. F. Carlos 

 Lehmann and his assistant from the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales 

 and by Lt. Alejandro Rubiano as a representative of the Colombian 

 Government, Dr. Wetmore set out from Santa Marta on a pro- 

 longed expedition through the Guajira Peninsula. The party 

 traveled by truck to Riohacha stopping en route for work in ex- 

 tensive forest areas near the Rio Ariguani and its tributaries. Here 

 in 8 days' time specimens of 100 distinct species of birds were ob- 

 tained, an indication of the richness of the fauna. In Riohacha the 

 party obtained another truck and here entered the Guajira proper. 

 The peninsula in the main is an arid, desert country with extensive 

 open savannas and broad stony plains, grown in places with heavy 

 stands of mesquite and cacti that form veritable forests. In the 

 eastern section there are low mountains with trails along their bases 

 passable for heavy trucks except during the period of rains. On 

 the highest range where the trade winds build a cloud cap with con- 

 sequent more or less regular precipitation in contrast to the desert 

 below, there is an island of tropical rain forest with the species 

 usual to such an environment, here isolated by long distances from 

 other similar areas. Dr. Lehmann and Lieutenant Rubiano com- 

 pleted their work with the party in April while the others continued 

 to the forested region mentioned. On the return the middle of May 

 it was necessary because of disrupted steamer schedules for Dr. 

 Wetmore to cross by schooner from Puerto Estrella, in the Guajira, to 

 the Island of Aruba, Here after a 2-day wait he obtained plane 

 passage to Curagao, and from there sailed for New York. A stop 

 en route at La Guaira, Venezuela, gave opportunity to visit Caracas, 

 where he was guest of honor at a luncheon given bv W. H. Phelps 



