Todd-Carriker : Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 31 



travelling, and for the greater part of the trip he went barefoot, his 

 feet and legs exposed to the attacks of wood ticks and numerous in- 

 sects, with every now and then a narrow escape from a fer-de-lance or 

 a bushmaster. 



Many of the trails are fairly good, being used by the Indians, but 

 occasionally Mr. Brown had to cut his way through the forest, and the 

 mountain streams, swollen by the continuous rains to raging torrents, 

 were often very hard to ford. Under these conditions Mr. Brown 

 made a very creditable collection, sending in over a thousand bird 

 skins and about three hundred and fifty mammals as the results of his 

 six and a half months' work." 



Mr. Brown's trip was broken up in the summer of 1898 by his hav- 

 ing to return on account of illness in his family, but he came back 

 again in January of the following year, and on this occasion succeeded 

 in reaching a much higher elevation than on his first trip. He goes 

 on to say: 



" About a day's trip above San Antonio is the interesting Indian 

 village of San Miguel, situated on a grassy plateau about 5,000 feet 

 above sea-level. This village of little round houses with roofs of 

 thatched grass and walls of woven branches is an interesting and 

 unique sight to the traveller. At the time I was there the Indian 

 population numbered about two hundred persons. One of their oc- 

 cupations was making large rope bags, with wide meshes, for trans- 

 porting goods on the backs of pack-animals. They also made smaller 

 bags of pleasing design, used by the women to carry their children; 

 the bag when in use being carried on the back, with its strap brought 

 over the forehead. The Indians have little farms and raise onions and 

 other vegetables. They are quite pacific by nature, but are expert at 

 making poisons. They are said to eat snakes and frogs, and although 

 I never saw them do so, I took no chances, doing my own cooking. 

 They are fond of chewing a leaf said to be from the cocaine shrub or 

 bush, but always take with it a white powder made of pulverized sea* 

 shells. 



" About half a day's travel up the mountain beyond San Miguel is 

 the Indian village of Macotama, which at the time of my visit had 

 only a few families living there. They let me have a large round 

 council house in which to live and prepare my specimens, and it was 

 the coldest, darkest, most villainous place in which to work that I have 

 4 



