THE MUSEUM'S FIELD WORK IN COLOMBIA 217 



from Alta ]Mira in the Magdalena Valley, to Florencia in Caqueta, on the 

 headwaters of Amazonian drainage. The inaccessibility of this region has 

 made it one of the least-known parts of South America, but it can now be 

 reached over a recently constructed government road. Thirty days were 

 passed in the vast forests about Florencia, which is at an altitude of only 

 six humlred feet. It was the height of the rainy season but in spite of the 

 heat and excessive humidity, Mr. Miller collected and preserved some eight 

 hundred birds and mammals, practically none of which are represented in 

 our previous Colombian collections. Forty -five days were required for the 

 journey to New York where Mr. Miller arrived September 9, after eighteen 

 months of continuous field work. 



It is still too early to speak at length of the major results obtained by our 

 work in Colombia, but it is obvious as study of the collections progresses, 

 that we are in possession of data of high importance in its bearing not only 

 on the origin of life in Colombia, Init also on the origin of life in tropical 

 America. Incidentally the expedition has secured a surprisingly large 

 number of new and rare species. We have found, for example, that a cer- 

 tain duck (Aythi/a nationi) previously known from only two specimens, is 

 a common bird in the Cauca Valley, and our series of fifteen beautifully 

 prepared skins enables us to show the close relationships of this bird with 

 Ayihja hrunnca of South Africa. 



At least one-fourth of the birds collected were not before contained in 

 our Museum and many of these are new to American museums, while of 

 those new to science a beautiful little parrot from near the crest of the 

 Central Andes proves to be a link connecting other forms of its group. It 

 has been named Pionopsitta fuertesi, in honor of Louis Agassiz Fuertes, 

 foremost painter of birds, and a member of the reconnaissance party which 

 planned the Colombian expedition route. 



There are also two new ant-thrushes which have been named respectively 

 Grallaria alleni and Grallaria miUcri, in honor of the men who have rendered 

 the ISIuseum such excellent service at no small personal risk; new creepers, 

 flycatchers, wrens, thrushes, finches, warblers, grosbeaks and tanagers, 

 whose discovery shows how rich is the field awaiting the zoological explorer 

 in South America. 



We should not fail to explain that the success we have met with in Col- 

 ombia has been due not to the energy of our own representatives alone, 

 but in no small measure to the courtesy and cooperation of the Colom- 

 bians who, whether as officials or individuals, have invariably honored our 

 calls for information and assistance, and have frequently extended hospitali- 

 ties which greatly increased the efficiency of the expedition. 



Our plans for the future include a biological survey of the Bogota region, 

 to be followed by explorations in that little-known territory to the east 

 in which upper branches of both the Orinoco and the Amazon have their 

 origin. 



