128 Mv.C.^Y.^Yyaitonthe 



remained to enable us to identify it. We reached Matisgua 

 in a pouring rain. This village is situated in a deep valley at 

 an elevation of about 8500 feet. We could see from here the 

 road to Pamplona vvinding up the mountains on the other side 

 of the valley, and were told that there was another paramo to be 

 crossed before reaching that place, which was about a day's 

 journey further on. 



After spending a day at Matisgua we again ascended the 

 paramo, keeping a sharp look-out for birds; but to no pur- 

 pose, until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when, just as we 

 were beginning to think that birds could not, in spite of what 

 we knew to the contrary, exist on a paramo, we shot a Synal- 

 laxis, which proved to be a new species, creeping about amongst 

 some stones, and Phrygilus unicolor. Just before reaching the 

 highest part of the road, about 11,500 feet in elevation, we saw 

 a Condor. After crossing the ridge and beginning to de- 

 scend, a Humming-bird made its appearance; and almost imme- 

 diately afterwards the place seemed to swarm with them. It 

 was a sight T shall never forget. Around us were shrubs and 

 bushes, all in full blossom. A Barberry [Berbei-is goudoti) with 

 its orange- coloured flowers, Vaccinium montinia, with its flowers 

 uf pink, and Miconia rhamnoidea, with its flowers of white, were 

 the shrubs around which they congregated in greatest numbers. 

 They consisted of three species ; of these the little copper-co- 

 loured Aglaactis cupreipennis was the commonest. We found 

 its beautiful lichen-covered nest, rather a large one for the size 

 of the bird, in one of the shrubs. It was placed upon a bough, 

 without a fork or even a twig to give it additional strength and 

 security. The other two were Oxypogon guerini and Rampho- 

 micron heteropogon. We shot them with so small a charge that 

 sometimes they were only just knocked down, and we held them 

 alive in our hands for a few seconds. A more beautiful and 

 wonderful little creature than Oxijpogon guerini there can hardly 

 be when it erects its crest and shoots out its emerald gorget. 

 We obtained here also the beautiful but common Pcecilothraupis 

 lunulata, Conirostrum rufum, and Buarremon pallidinuchus ; and 

 by the side of a little stream, which fell over grey lichen-covered 

 boulders into little eddying pools, we shot the little Dipper 



