22 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



in these parts by recent collectors. The exceptions to this rule are so 

 conspicuous, however, as to suggest that nearly all these early records 

 ought to be received with reservations. The brothers Verreaux were 

 notoriously careless in the labelling of such specimens as passed 

 through their hands, and must often have got their birds mixed. 

 There can be no question whatever, for instance, in the light of our 

 present knowledge, that the types of such forms as Momotus scmirafus, 

 Euphonia fuhncrissa, and Phccnicothraupis erythromelcena could not 

 have come from Santa Marta at all, since they are obviously confined 

 to a different faunal region in each case. Several other species, as will 

 be shown in detail in the systematic part of this paper, are similarly 

 involved. In one case an African species was even attributed to 

 Santa Marta on the strength of one of these mis-labelled Verreaux 

 specimens ! In short, the " Santa Marta " of these earlier references 

 was, in many cases at least, of as uncertain and indefinite application 

 as the " Bogota " of that day. 



Records of Joad and Wyatt. — " In 1870 Mr. G. Joad, F. Z. S., rode 

 round the Sierra Nevada from Santa Marta, and collected a few bird- 

 skins. Amongst these was the type of the new Furnarius, described 

 by us in the ' Nomenclator ' as F. agnatus, which was obtained at Valle 

 Dupar " (Salvin and Godman). This gentleman is also credited with 

 having secured a few other birds, among them the type-specimen of 

 Ortcdida ruficrissa, described by Sclater and Salvin in 1871, and which 

 came from the same place. About this time appeared an extended 

 paper in the Ibis by Claude W. Wyatt, giving the results of his explora- 

 tions in the Eastern Ancles of Colombia. Wyatt landed at Santa 

 Marta in December, 1869, en route for the interior, and spent a few 

 hours in the immediate vicinity of the city, going to Cienaga the next 

 day. Fifteen species were recorded during his biief stay. These 

 records by Joad and Wyatt are practically the first from this region 

 upon which full dependence can be placed. 



The Simons Expedition. — As we have already seen, with but one or 

 two exceptions all the species of birds thus far attributed to this region 

 came from the lowlands; nothing was known of the avifauna of the 

 Sierra Nevada proper. Wyatt, indeed, had called attention to the 

 possibilities from an ornithological standpoint, and Salvin and God- 

 man, perhaps influenced by his remarks, or by independent con- 

 siderations, reached the same conclusion : " Here, then, was a promis- 



