BIRDS OF NORTHERN VENEZUELA — WETMORE 177 



specimen would certainly have been lost. Daily I heard strange 

 birds, often close at hand, that I could not identify, and daily novel 

 species that I had not seen before came to hand. 



The air in these mountains was cool and pleasant, and rushing 

 streams furnished an abundance of pure water, uncontaminated, as 

 there were no human inhabitants in the forest above. Morning and 

 evening I had wonderful views of Lake Valencia and the broad valley 

 of Aragua, and at other times I never tired of looking out as I worked 

 during the afternoon with specimens or with notes to watch the swift, 

 soundless drift of fog across the slopes. Rain, which fell daily, came 

 mainly in the afternoon or at night and so did not interfere with 

 morning field work. On one or two days w*hen fog covered the 

 mountains and birds could not be found I descended to 3,000 feet on 

 the north toward Guamitas to the open slopes below the forest. I 

 worked down also to 2,500 feet below Los Riitos on the north. 



On the evening of November 10 I retm'ned to Maracay, and on 

 November 111 collected again in the area of little fields and partly 

 cut-over woodland at La Providencia. The sun seemed almost oppres- 

 sively hot after the work of the last few days in the cool, shaded 

 forests of the mountains, and mosquitoes were very bad. Birds 

 abounded, and I marveled at their number as well as at their almost 

 bewildering variety. 



At dawn on Noveraber 12 Ventura Barnes and I left Maracay by 

 auto for the northern llanos. Near Turmero we turned south, 

 passed an extensive swamp near Cagua, and then crossed through a 

 low pass to San Juan de los Morros, the latter being two high points 

 of stone of picturesque form. A huge statue of San Juan, 60 or 70 

 feet tall, recently erected, dommated the flat-topped village. 



From this point the hills became lower and the valleys broader, 

 with the land everywhere covered with low thorn scrub. We stopped 

 to collect at points north and south of Parapara. Beyond Ortiz the 

 hills disappeared and the land was level except for slight undulations. 

 The thorn scrub here was dense and in places rose to the dimension 

 of trees. By noon the heat was intense, and we stopped for a time at 

 a farm called Hato Paya, 28 kilometers north of El Sombrero, to 

 prepare the birds we had secured, before they spoUed. The elevation 

 here was 400 feet above the sea. Our host had not seen motion 

 pictures as yet, but had heard a radio. There was much complaint of 

 malaria. 



At nightfall Ave reached the tOAvai of El Sombrero, where we located 

 in a small hotel, and the following day collected at a point 12 miles to 

 the south. Barnes then retm-ned to Maracay. 



El Sombrero is a town of a few hundred people at an altitude of 

 400 feet on the Rio Guarico, which here runs beneath a low bluff, the 



