PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
issued 
vee 
Ye a oa a J 
SHINGO 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 
Vol. 97 Washington: 1948 No. 3219 
BIRDS COLLECTED BY THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 
SOCIETY’S EXPEDITIONS TO NORTHERN BRAZIL AND 
SOUTHERN VENEZUELA 
By Hersert FrRrepMANN 
Tue collection of birds described in the present report was made’ 
by Ernest G. Holt and his assistants on two expeditions under the 
auspices of the National Geographic Society in connection with the 
field work of the Venezuelan-Brazilian Boundary Commission. This 
Commission resulted from the decision of the Brazilian and Venezuelan 
Governments to mark and accurately map their common boundary, 
which, “‘according to treaty, follows the watershed of a rugged chain 
of mountains that extends from British Guiana more than 900 miles 
southwestward to the banks of the Upper Rio Negro. Because this 
remote region was not only geographically unexplored, but was totally 
unknown zodlogically, the National Geographic Society had obtained 
special permission of the governments concerned to attach a party of 
naturalists to the official commissions appointed to carry out the 
boundary demarcation.” (Holt, Nat. Geogr. Mag., vol. 64, Nov. 
1933, p. 585.) 
On the first of the two expeditions, Mr. and Mrs. Holt traveled as 
guests of the Comisién Venezolana de Limites, and ascended the 
Orinoco from Ciudad Bolivar to Puerto Ayacucho, just below the 
impassable rapids of Atures, where the river journey was interrupted 
by an overland portage of 42 miles. The Orinoco was reached again 
above the Maipures Rapids and was followed to Tamatama, where 
the Casiquiare branches off to the south. Then the route of the 
expedition followed that stream to its junction with the Rio Negro, 
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