Birds of Columbia. ■ 127 



returned from Matisgua; crossing the paramo again, but in 

 another direction, by Cocuta Matanza. 



This excursion led us through a different sort of country from 

 that which we had before traversed. Our road, after leaving Bu- 

 caramanga, lay up a deep and narrow valley, sometimes by the 

 side of, sometimes above, a dashing stream, which had its source 

 on the paramo. The upper parts of the mountains were thickly 

 wooded in many places; and the sides of the valley, where there 

 was soil enough for any thing to find a footing, were covered with 

 scrub and underwood. A journey of two days up this valley 

 brought us to a hut situated just under the paramo, at an eleva- 

 tion of about 9500 feet. The country here was open, with a 

 little underwood and a few oaks {Quercus tolimensis). We stayed 

 for a couple of days, and added two more species of Humming- 

 birds to our list — Metallura ty riant hina,a.ndihe long-tailed Le5Z»2a 

 amaryllis. The beautiful blue Jay [Cyanocitta armillata) w^e met 

 with here for the first time, also Zonotrichia pileata and Qais- 

 calus subalaris. We could scarcely believe that we were only a 

 few days' journey from the seething Magdalena valley. A patch 

 or two of barley near the hut reminded us of Europe. The 

 days and nights were cold, and we saw very little of the sun, 

 though it did occasionally make its appearance through the mist 

 and clouds in which we were generally enveloped. 



Our next move was over the paramo, just below which grew 

 in great abundance the yellow Calceolaria and purple Iris of 

 our gardens. We crossed in a biting wind and drizzling rain. 

 Our muleteer looked thoroughly miserable, and we no longer 

 wondered at the ^islike of these men to a paramo. At an eleva- 

 tion of 10,000 feet, where the region of paramos commences, 

 the Andes of Columbia in general appearance much resemble 

 the fjelds of Norway. The paramo of Pamplona reminded me 

 of the Dovre fjeld, and I was transported in imagination from 

 within seven degrees of the equator to the far north — a bare deso- 

 late country of moss and tufts of grass, the dark grey rock oc- 

 casionally cropping out, and the ground strewn with stones and 

 boulders. The only birds we saw were a Pipit [Anthus bogo- 

 tensis) and the little Kestrel, Tinnunculus sparverius. Hanging 

 to the side of a hut we passed was a Condor, of which enough 



