1909] Beebe: Birds of Northeastern Venezuela. 69 



known as canos, and are really the river deltas of this region, 

 such as the Guarapiche and the San Juan. At high tide one may 

 penetrate deep into the mangrove swamps in canoes, or curiaras 

 as the native dug-outs are called, but low tide empties these of 

 water, leaving exposed the soft ooze. One cannot step upon this, 

 and in all this lower region there is hardly a foot of hard ground. 

 This outermost zone we may designate as that of Pure Man- 

 groves. 



Going westward through the Cano San Juan we come to the 

 Rio Guarapiche. This river, from its mouth up to above the 

 village of Caiio Colorado, is an excellent epitome of the gradually 

 changing conditions in this region. 



At the mouth and for a mile up stream the mangrove reigns 

 supreme. Then orchids and other epiphytes appear, together 

 with a scattering of weak vines and lianas, and now and then 

 the fronded head of a small palm. For a long distance the man- 

 grove holds its own along the banks, its roots bathed by the ebb 

 and flow of the tides. We may call this the Mixed Mangrove 

 region. Finally we observe that the jungle in the background 

 has become wholly terrestrial in character, tall palms and great 

 forest trees draped with a dense mass of lianas and epiphytes, 

 and from the forest fringe the mangrove finally disappears al- 

 together. 



At Cano Colorado we find a typical mainland but rather 

 marshy flora, which may be known as the region of Pure Forest. 



From the very gulf edge, throughout all this outer zone, 

 monkeys are fairly numerous. We found a species of large 

 black spider monkey (Ateles) ; at least two species of capuchins 

 (Cebus) ; squirrel monkeys (Chrysothrix) ; and the big red 

 howlers (Mycetes) . The latter seldom range far into the zone 

 of pure mangrove forest, and became more numerous as we ap- 

 proached the dry land jungle. 



Spiny rats (Loucheres), are found on the mangrove roots, 

 miles from dry land and at least one species of opossum (Didel- 

 phys or Chironectes) , also reaches the gulf edge. A small spe- 

 cies of squirrel {Sciurus) , with brilliant rufous under parts ex- 

 tends far into the inner zone of pure mangrove forest, although 

 it is hard to imagine of what its food can consist. 



Far from the waters of the gulf we find schools of dolphins 

 (Delphinus) , playing and feeding in the canos, but in spite of 

 most thorough search we saw no signs, and could learn nothing 

 from the natives, of the occurrence in this region of the manatee. 

 The characteristic birds of the outer mangrove zone are 

 chiefly aquatic. Gulls, terns, plovers, sandpipers, herons, mus- 



