144 Rhoads, Birds of the Paramo of Central Ecuador. [April 



Buff Cochin Pullet suddenly transformed into a winged cannonball. 

 Of course one's first shot at such a spectacle is a clear miss and the 

 bird seems to fly, and fly clear out of the country, as you watch its 

 exit. 



Much to our surprise the everlasting stumptailed Ant-thrushes, 

 Grallaria monticola (Lafr.), of the templada bush-regions, common 

 as far down the line as Huigra (4000 feet), have even followed us 

 up here, into the wide open middle Paramo, to an elevation of 

 12,500 feet. The next day several of them were noted on a scantily 

 wooded cliff, near camp, as high as 13,500 feet. This is a wide 

 range for a bird of such limited powers of flight. In fact it is almost 

 impossible to force this humpty-dumpty, thrush-like bird to open 

 its wings, its long, robust legs enabling it to leap and jump and run 

 with almost as much address as the famous long-tailed Paisano 

 or Road-runner of Mexico. Strange, is it not, that such diversely 

 feathered birds should have such similar habits? Nothing can be 

 more tiresome than the three-cornered "Wu, weeo, weeou" or 

 whistled song of this constantly invisible bird. Especially does 

 this apply to the feelings of the collector, who has tried vainly from 

 day to day to locate and secure the singer, which sits motionless 

 in a low bush, or on the ground beneath, in such a way as to be 

 completel}" obscured. The notes are ventriloquial, and you may 

 actually walk away from it in endeavoring to get closer. Another 

 bird of wide range, which comes up this far, is the tiny and fantastic 

 little streaked Flycatcher with its Padrewski hair, the Anairetes 

 parulus (Kittl.). It follows the occasional bunches of stunted 

 trees on the quebrada sides to 13,000 feet, where also a high ranging 

 Warbler was seen. Two other species of Sparrows were noted in 

 the grass, and a dainty, buff colored Titlark, A7ithus bogotensis Scl., 

 of about the size of ours, but noticeably different in being able to 

 fly without the inevitable snickers of A. rubescens. Perhaps the 

 grandeur and solemnity of their habitat has subdued the frivolity 

 of this genus in the Andean bird. 



Our Paramo camp was located near the highest point where fuel 

 could be secured, and in a pass which presented on the east a pre- 

 cipitous bluff of rocks leading on up directly to one of the lower 

 peaks of Pichincha's summit. We had been warned against cold, 

 and had endeavored to provide for it, but our first night was a 



