Vol / s * VI ] Bangs, The Hummingbirds of Colombia. 1 37 



luxuriant and the forest heavier. In places there are open 

 grassy savannas, but most of the peculiar birds of the region 

 dwell in the elevated mountain forest, cut off from their nearest 

 relations in the elevated regions about Bogota and in the moun- 

 tains of Venezuela by the intervening hot countries. 



Many of the birds living in the Santa Marta mountains appear 

 to be peculiar to them ; a few species, however, occur both here 

 and in the mountains about Merida, Venezuela, though absent 

 in the intervening lowlands. Two good examples of such are 

 the Parrot, Pionus sordidus (Linn.) and the Green Toucan, 

 Aulacorhamphus calorhynchus Gould. On the other hand, we find 

 in these two mountain districts instances of closely related 

 representative species, as with the Flycatching Warblers — the 

 golden-crowned Setophaga flavivertex Salv. being known only from 

 the Santa Marta mountains, and the white-fronted Setophaga 

 albifrons Scl. & Salv. inhabiting, so far as known, only the 

 Merida region. 



Compared with the birds of the Bogota region the difference 

 is even greater, as most of the strictly mountain birds of the two 

 regions prove at least subspecifically distinct. 



Apart from the local forms there are of course a great many 

 wide-ranging tropical species found in the Sierra Nevada, and a 

 few Mexican and Central American birds, such as Muscivora 

 mexicana Scl., push their ranges south to these mountains. 



Before Simons made his famous collection several new species 

 had been described from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, or 

 the hot countries about Santa Marta, generally from single speci- 

 mens sent to England by orchid hunters or travellers. The more 

 striking amongst these are the lovely little Hummingbird, the 

 type of its genus, Anthocephala floriceps (Gould), the Motmot, 

 Momotus subrufescens Scl., and the Oven-bird, Furnarius agnatus 

 Scl. & Salv. Simons's collection added about nine more (not all 

 described in the original reports on this collection). Since then 

 one very distinct Flycatching Warbler, Setophaga flavivertex 

 Salv., has been described, from two specimens contained in a 

 small collection of birds made in these mountains. Mr. Brown's 

 work, up to date, has yielded twenty-three additional new forms, 

 most of them probably peculiar to the Santa Marta region. 



