Collection of Birds from Columbia. 197 



The present paper relates to his first consignmeut of bird- 

 skins, which reached us a short time ago. 

 ^ There are few places in South America of which the zoology 

 is less known than that of the mountainous tract of land 

 lying between the mouth of the Magdalena river and the 

 Gulf of jNIaracaibo. usually known as the Sierra Nevada of 

 Santa Marta. Though this district has been visited by 

 botanical travellers, no zoologist has as yet penetrated into 

 it ; or, at any rate, no results of any such expedition have 

 been made public*. If we except the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of Santa Marta itself, where several collectors have 

 worked for a short time, the remainder of this limited district 

 is so little known that we can only recall the name of one 

 bird, a Humming-bird {Anthocephala floriceps), found in it ; 

 and this was obtained by a botanist, so Mr. Gould tells us, 

 near San Antonio, in the Nevada itself. Here, then, was a 

 promising field for an ornithologist — this isolated mass of 

 mountains, whose snowy peaks, visible from far out on the 

 Caribbean Sea, form so striking a feature in the scenery of 

 the northern coast of South America, -^ 



Mr. Simons landed at Rio de la Hacha, and thence made 

 his way to Valle Dupar, which lies on the southern side of 

 the Nevada, and is but 700 feet above the sea. From here 

 he made excursions to various villages situated on the 

 southern slope of the mountain — San Sebastian, Atanques, 

 San Jose, and Chinchicua, at various elevations up to 

 nearly 7000 feet above the ocean. He also passed a month 

 at a coffee-plantation called Manaure, which he describes as 

 situated at an elevation of 2700 feet, at the foot of the 

 Andes, 25 miles S.E. by E. of Valle Dupar. This place would 

 appear to be on a mountain-range apart from the Nevada, 

 We are, however, unable to give an accurate account of the 

 geography of this region, as no map to which we have had 

 access gives an adequate idea of the mountain-system, 



* lu 1870 Mr. G. Joad, F.Z.S., rotle round the Sierra Nevada from 

 Santa Martha, and collected a few bu'dskins. Amongst these was the 

 type of the new Furnarius, described by us in the ' Nomenclator ' as F. 

 agnatus, which was obtained at Valle Dupar, 



