I 1 8 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XIII, 



short time, the remainder of this limited district is so little known 

 that we can only recall the natne of one bird, a Humming-bird 

 {Anthoccphala floriceps), found in it ; and this was obtained by a 

 botanist, so Mr. Gould tells us, near San Antonio, in the Nevada 

 itself. Here, then, was a promising field for an ornithologist 

 this isolated mass of mountains, whose snowy peaks, visible from 

 far out on the Caribbean Sea, form so striking a feature in the 

 scenery on the northern coast of South America." 



Mr. Simons worked mainly on the southern slope of the Sierra 

 Nevada, at Valle Dupar, San Sebastian, Atanques, San Jose, and 

 Chinchicua, these points varying in altitude from 700 to 11,000 

 feet. He ascended to 17,000 feet, and collected some specimens 

 at altitudes above 14,000 feet. He also collected at Santa Marta 

 and Minca, near the coast, and at Manaure, about ten miles south- 

 east of Valle Dupar, on the eastern side of the valley of the Rio 

 Cesar, at the foot of the western slope of the Cordillera de los 

 Andes, and hence really outside of the Sierra Nevada region 

 proper. A rectangular area of about 30 by 50 miles, the longer 

 diameter being east and west, would include the whole district 

 where Mr. Simons collected, and much more than cover the 

 regions since visited by Mr. W. W. Brown in the interest of Mr. 

 Bangs, and by Mr. Smith's collectors in the interest of this 

 Museum. 



This region, for the obvious reasons already quoted from Sal- 

 vin and Godman, has of late presented strong attractions to a 

 number of American naturalists, and for nearly a year before Mr. 

 Smith's departure he had been preparing to thoroughly explore 

 the Santa Marta district of Colombia, both zoologically and botan- 

 ically, beginning at sea-level and later working up to the highest 

 points of the Sierra, it being his intention to devote from three to 

 five years to the work, aided by a number of assistants. By a sin- 

 gular coincidence, Messrs. O. and E. O. Bangs, well-known natur- 

 alists of Boston, Mass., were at the same time arranging to send 

 an experienced collector, Mr. W. W. Brown, Jr., to this same 

 region, in absolute ignorance of Mr. Smith's plans, and Mr. Smith 

 and myself were in equal ignorance of the plans of Messrs. 

 Bangs. It happened that Mr. Brown was first on the ground, and 

 his collections began to reach Boston long before any portion of 

 Mr. Smith's were received here. For months after Mr. Smith's 



