



THE MUSEUM 



OF 

 THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 



SCIENCE BULLETIN 

 VOL. 2, NO. 6. 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF THE 

 ORINOCO REGION. 



BY GEORGE K. CHERRIE. 



This paper is based chiefly on specimens in the collection of the 

 Museum of The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, obtained by 

 the writer, together with his field notes on the same. 1 It includes, how- 

 ever, observations on the specimens sent to the American Museum of 

 Natural History from the vicinity of Ciudad Bolivar on the Orinoco 

 and various points on the Caura River by Mr. Samuel M. Klages. 



In 1905 collections were made by the writer for the 

 Brooklyn Museum in the vicinity of Ciudad Bolivar and the 

 village of Caicara covering the period from April 3rd to June 

 24th inclusive. In 1907 collecting was carried on in the same local- 

 ities as in 1905, and in addition at various points on the River San 

 Feliz, near its junction with the River Cuchivero, a tributary of the 

 Orinoco, entering that stream some forty miles below the village of 

 Caicara. Also a week's time was spent in the middle delta region of 

 the Orinoco at the village of Las Barrancas. The collecting in 1907 

 covered the period between April 6th and August 7th inclusive. In 

 addition, however, to the notes on specimens in the Brooklyn Museum 

 collection, there have been added certain notes and observations on 

 species collected and observed by Stella M. Cherrie and the writer in 

 the valley of the Orinoco in 1897, 1898, and 1899, while engaged in 

 collecting birds for the Tring Museum, England. Thus not only are 



'The manuscript for this paper was completed some five or six years ago, and passed out of the 

 author's hands at that time. After some vicissitudes, it was being published under the editorship of 

 the late Edward L. Morris, acting Curator-in-Chief of the Brooklyn Museum. His untimely death left 

 it partly in page proof and partly in galley proof. The old proof sheets have been placed in the writer's 

 tritvl.s, and recently published investigations of various students of tropical American ornithology have 

 made considerable revision necessary. The paper, therefore, is not as complete as might be desired, nor does 

 it represent the most recent views on classification. 



I vyish to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Waldron DeWitt Miller for his patient, careful work 

 in reading the proof. To Dr. J. A. Allen and Dr. F'rank M. Chapman I am also indebted for granting me 

 full use of the collections in the American Museum of Natural History. THE AUTHOR. 



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