408 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XX, 



alternately overrun by insurgent and government forces. I 

 am greatly indebted to Mr. Smith for the following account of 

 the physical features of the region, a detailed list of the 

 localities at which collections were made, and for field .notes 

 on many of the species. The field notes are distinguished by 

 marks of quotation and the initials H. H. S. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE REGION. 

 By Herbert H. Smith. 



The collection of mammals and birds for the American 

 Museum of Natural History was made during three years and 

 a half, March, 1898, to September, 1901. My original inten- 

 tion had been to explore the whole Department of Magdalena ; 

 that is, northern Colombia from the Magdalena River to 

 Venezuela, and extending from the coast over 200 miles in- 

 land. Almost in the outset, I was laid up for six months by 

 a severe illness ; subsequently my plans were frustrated by a 

 civil war, which made travelling practically impossible. Our 

 work was thus restricted to a comparatively small area in the 

 northwestern corner of the Department. A brief description 

 of this region may be useful and I shall preface it with some 

 general remarks on the mountain region to which it belongs. 



The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is an isolated mass 

 about midway between Magdalena and the Venezuelan fron- 

 tier, and within sight of the northern coast. It is nearly 

 18,000 feet high, and has a very extensive snowfield, stretch- 

 ing probably thirty miles from southwest to northeast. The 

 Sierra Nevada does not belong to the Andean system; west- 

 ward it is separated from one branch by the broad plains of 

 the Magdalena, and to the east and southeast a long valley 

 divides it from the Black Andes. This valley is drained by 

 the river Cesar, flowing south-southwest to the Magdalena, 

 and the river Rancheria, passing northward to the coast; 

 the sources of these streams are close together, and the pass 

 between them is said to be less than 1000 feet above sea-level. 

 A depression of 1000 feet, therefore, would reduce the Sierra 

 Nevada region to an island, separated from the continent by 



