AN ANNOTATED LIST OF MAMMALS COLLECTED IN THE 
VICINITY OF LA GLJAIRA, VENEZUELA. 
By Wirt Robinson, 
Captain, U. S. Army, 
and 
Marcus Ward Lyon, Jr., 
Aid, Division of ifamrnah. 
During the summer of 1900 the authors spent six weeks colleetino- 
in the vicinity of La Guaira, Venezuela. The present paper embodies 
the results of the trip so far as mammals are concerned; the birds, 
reptiles, and batrachians are treated in the two succeeding articles in 
this volume. 
La (juaira, the seaport town of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, lies 
dong the foot of a range of lofty mountains. This range breaks away 
from the eastern chain of the Andes in Colombia, bears northeast until 
it reaches the coast of the Caribbean Sea near Puerto Cabello, thence 
hugs the shore in an almost due east direction, and finally ends opposite 
the island of Trinidad. For the greater part of this latter course the 
slopes fall precipitately into the sea, the waves of the Carib])ean break- 
ing against the foot of the mountains themselves, but in places there 
is a littoral strip or terrace of no great width. 
The mountains immediately behind La Guaira reach a height of 8,000 
feet, but from this point fall away gradually as one proceeds to the 
eastward. There are in the vicinity of La Guaira few or no passes 
through these mountains. Seven miles to the west there is a rugged 
gap, high up on the side of which winds the English railroad to Caracas. 
To the eastward there are no near-by breaks in the chain. 
Upon these peaks there is constant precipitation, and frequent streams 
of fine water furrow ravines in their course to the sea. The channels 
of these streams are well wooded, and would afford good ground for the 
collector were they not rendered so difficult by their cramped canyon- 
like character, their precipitous descent, and their bowlder-strewn beds. 
The few trails that exist avoid these streams and zigzag up the crests 
of the more practicable slopes. 
Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXIV— No. 1246. 
135 
