Article XIV. LIST OF BIRDS COLLECTED IN THE 



DISTRICT OF SANTA MARTA, COLOMBIA, 



BY MR. HERBERT H. SMITH. 



By J. A. ALLEN. 



The basis of the present paper is a collection of 2834 birds 

 collected under the direction of Mr. Herbert H. Smith, in the 

 neighborhood of Santa Marta, Colombia, between sea-level and 

 an altitude of about 8000 feet, from May 4, 1898, to September 7, 

 1899, and purchased for the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory by its President, Morris K. Jesup, Esq., together with Mr. 

 Smith's large collection of mammals obtained in the same region, 

 as elsewhere noted. 1 



The Smith Collection of birds numbers 304 species, and in- 

 cludes all but 84 hitherto recorded from this small area. As a 

 matter of interest and convenience to future workers in this field 

 I have interpolated in brackets the species not obtained by Mr. 

 Smith's collectors, and as a matter of geographical interest have 

 deemed it best to give a complete summary of our present knowl- 

 edge of the distribution of the species definitely known from the 

 district under consideration, and have therefore cited the pre- 

 vious records as given by Messrs. Salvin and Godman and Mr. 

 Outram Bangs. 



As Messrs. Salvin and Godman stated in 1879 (Ibis, April, 1879, 

 p. 197), in their report on the collection made in this region by 

 Mr. F. Simons in 1878 and 1879 : " There are few places in South 

 America of which the zoology is less known than that of the 

 mountainous tract of land lying between the mouth of the Mag- 

 dalena river and the Gulf of Maracaibo, usually known as the 

 Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta. Though this district has been 

 visited by botanical travellers, no zoologist has as yet penetrated 

 into it ; or, at any rate, no results of any such expedition have been 

 made public. 1 If we except the immediate neighborhood of 

 Santa Marta itself, where several collectors have worked for a 



1 Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. XII, 1899, p. 195. 



2 " In 1870 Mr. G. Joad, F.Z.S., rode round the Sierra Nevada from Santa Martha, and 

 collected a few birdskins. Amongst these was the type of the new Furnarius, described by 

 us in the ' Nomenclator ' as F. agnatus, which was obtained at Valle Dupar." 



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