240 General Notes. [££& 



Marsh Hawks and Short-eared Owls are fellow sufferers with the ducks. 

 These two birds are very necessary to that country for mice are unusually 

 common and the hawks and owls are about the only means of keeping them 

 in check. All four hawk nests which I found were built in stubble fields 

 and were broken up by farming operations. Five owl nests were located; 

 three of these were spoiled, but the other two were collected before some- 

 thing else could happen to them. Of the 35 duck, hawk, and owl nests 

 which I examined I know of only five in which the eggs hatched. The 

 one redeeming feature lies in the fact that probably the greater part of the 

 second sets hatch and the young mature in good shape, for there are few 

 farming operations at the time when they would be found and there 

 are few natural enemies to interfere with them. — Walter A. Goelitz, 

 Ravinia, Illinois. 



Goudot's Explorations in Colombia. — In his recent work on 'The 

 Distribution of Bird-Life in Colombia,' Dr. Chapman refers (p. 11) to a 

 "French collector, resident in Bogota," who began to send bird skins to 

 Paris about 1838 or 1839. This collector was probably Goudot and that 

 some of his specimens must have reached Europe at least ten years earlier 

 will be evident upon turning to the account of Chamcepetcs goudoti on p. 197. 

 This species described by Lesson, in 1828, was named in honor of Justin 

 Goudot, a French naturalist and botanical collector, a native of Jura, who 

 secured the type in the Quindio region, in 1827, and who spent many years 

 in Colombia collecting zoological and botanical specimens. As information 

 regarding his work in not generally accessible, the following summary may 

 be of interest. 



According to La Segue, 1 from whose brief account the following facts 

 have been mainly derived, Goudot was an attache of the Paris Museum. 

 Nearly a century ago, in 1822, in company with several other Frenchmen 

 he was called to Bogota by the government of Colombia (then known as 

 New Grenada), to assist in founding various scientific establishments. 

 For five years he remained in the service of the government collecting in 

 different parts of the country. In 1823 he began work on the coast of 

 Venezuela in the vicinity of Porto Cabello, then went to Santa Marta and 

 ascended the Magdalena River to Bogota. In the following year he 

 worked eastward across the cordillera to the plains of Meta and then 

 southward crossing the Ariari and the Guayabero, two branches of the 

 upper Orinoco. He then returned to Bogota and in 1825 directed his 

 course northward along the cordillera to the valley and emerald mine of 

 Muzo. In 1S26 he collected in the mountains southwest of Bogota, in 

 •>the vicinity of the natural bridge of Icononzo or Pandi. In 1827 he re- 

 signed from the service of the government but continued his work of 

 collecting natural history specimens. He crossed the valley of the Magda- 

 lena to the west in order to explore the rich vegetation of the Quindiu 

 region and it was on this trip undoubtedly that he secured the type of 



1 La Segue, A., Musee Botanique de M. Benjamin Delessert, pp. 471-472, Paris, 1845. 



