34 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



done, nor were all the species or specimens taken in 1899 duly listed 

 in the published report on the collection. As a result numerous local- 

 ity records for various species escaped publication. An effort has 

 been made to collect these for insertion in the present paper, as else- 

 where remarked, for their value from a faunal standpoint. The great 

 criticism we have to make of Mr. Brown's work in this region is that 

 he was not sufficiently careful as to localities. In the first place, he 

 seems to have depended entirely too much upon native hunters, so 

 that he could seldom have had more than a vague idea as to the exact 

 place or altitude from which certain birds came. 9 Again, there are 



9 At this point I wish to state that, while I am criticizing the use of the 

 native hunter by collectors, I want it understood that it is not this use in it- 

 self to which I object, but the manner in which it is done. I employ a native 

 hunter myself, and much of my success in the Sierra Nevada was due to the 

 use of a more than ordinarily intelligent Colombian, a man whom I had been 

 training constantly for over three years. What I do find fault with is the 

 practice of so many collectors (and I speak from personal knowledge and ob- 

 servation) of sending out native hunters with orders to shoot everything in 

 sight, while they remain in camp preparing specimens, with the result that 

 often twice as many birds' are shot as are prepared, while the really desirable 

 kinds are usually overlooked, on account of the hunter's laziness and lack of 

 intelligence. What I have always done is to keep nearly constantly in the 

 field myself, covering alternately the same ground as my hunter, so that I 

 can understand from his explanation exactly where and under what conditions 

 every bird was taken by him in each day's shooting, and also to see if he is 

 doing his work properly. It often happens that he gets kinds which I have not 

 seen, and vice versa, so that the work of one is a check on that of the other. 

 There are many species of birds the habits and habitat of which render them 

 extremely difficult to secure, and if the native hunter is inclined to be lazy 

 (as most of them are) he will fail entirely to find such species, which for this 

 very reason are the greatest desiderata. It takes more than an ordinary 

 amount of patience and grit to stand motionless in a swarm of vicious mos- 

 quitoes and call up a terrestrial ant-thrush out of the impenetrable jungle, and 

 they are rarely secured in any other manner. Thus the only way for the 

 collector to do thorough work is for him to learn by actual field experience 

 the habitat, habits, and call-notes of as many species as possible, so that he will 

 know more or less just what to look for in any given locality and know when 

 he is getting everything there is to be had, for every kind of environment 

 has its characteristic forms of bird-life. As a rule closely related species have 

 similar characteristics, frequenting the same kind of cover, and having call- 

 notes more or less alike, so that what is learned about one species in one 

 locality can be utilized in searching for allied species in other localities. I am 



