BIRDS OF NORTHERN VENEZUELA — WETMORB 175 



branch toward the west to Tuiiamo. On the way over we stopped 

 briefly near Los Riitos to examine the beautiful rain forest and then 

 continued to Ocumare de hi Costa, where I was established near 

 the beach at Independencia in an SLirj, comfortable little house be- 

 longing to the park administration. The small bay of Ocumare, 

 about 2 miles across, is bounded by rockj'^ headlands extending on 

 either side into the sea. A rush-grown lagoon or cienaga lay back of 

 the house in a level, open playa, indicating a former greater extent 

 for the lake. This led to steep, rocky hills grown with great cacti 

 and thorny scrub, while in the background was the sprawling village 

 shaded with coconut palms, with the distant mountains beyond. 

 This was typical arid tropical zone. 



Farther inland, along the lllo Ocumare, the climate seemed more 

 humid, and the tree growth was heavier and more verdant. Here were 

 extensive plantations of cacao and a few rubber trees with tall shade 

 trees overhead. 



On October 23 in company with Dr. Pittier I collected along the 

 Rio Ocumare at La Trilla at about 250 feet elevation in the foothills, 

 10 kilometers south of the village of Ocumare de la Costa. Here were 

 small brush-grown pastures, small plantations along the river, and 

 brush-grown hUl slopes above. On October 24 and 31 Mr. and Mrs. 

 Ventura Barnes, who had come over for these week ends, took me to 

 the winding valley of the Rio Cumboto toward Turiamo, where we 

 climbed to an elevation of 700 feet. The valley was given over to 

 cacao plantations, with partly open slopes above on which grew a 

 gallery forest that in places tended to become very dense. 



For the rest of the time I worked near Independencia, about the 

 lagoon, back into the hUls on either side, and on the west crossed over a 

 high, narrow ridge into the wooded valley behind the uninhabited 

 Playa de Maya. Inland the sun was extremely hot, but at my house 

 on the beach there was always a cooling breeze. 



On the evening of October 311 returned to Maracay, and remained 

 the following day, having opportunity to visit the zoological gardens 

 at Las Delicias, 6 kilometers from town, and the shores of Lake 

 Valencia. That evening I returned to the mountains, where through 

 the kindness of Senor Tacito A. Martinez I was established in the 

 country house called Quinta Rancho Chico, built on a mountain 

 shoulder on the southern slope at an elevation of 3,320 feet, less than 

 half a mile from the hotel under construction at Rancho Grande, also 

 on the south slope but nearer the crest. The highest point on the pass 

 through which the road passes is known as El Portachuelo, where the 

 elevation is 3,540 feet. Slopes were steep, so that in my work I 

 climbed either up or down, sometimes laboriously because of wet and 

 slippery ground. Seldom did I find an extensive space of level trail. 



