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ingly fine Snipe ( Gallinago jamessoni ) and also a Grouse (. Attajis

■chimborcizensis), besides several small ground-loving birds, some

exceedingly interesting. All have sombre plumage, and they

struck us as having very mournful notes. When we were camp¬

ing out up there, we found the melancholy cry of some of them

quite depressing in the freezing early mornings and evenings.

The note of one ( Pseudocalaptes boissoneanti ) which we heard

all over the highest regions of Ecuador, will always be

associated in our minds with snow and cold. These birds at

night sleep among the roots of the thick clumps of grass, and I

have often all but put my foot upon them. I spoke last month

of the little Black Humming Bird we met with there. We found

they built their nests under the ledges of the rocks, and during

the day they hovered over the grass, sipping the honey from the

small flowering plants, which grew sparsely about. On the

cliffs, many Hawks made their homes, and still higher, the

Condor also found a safe retreat, sleeping on ledges that were

actually a sheet of ice.


From the central highlands near Quito, are several mule

tracks passing over the Western ranges down to the forests

which uninterruptedly extend from there to the Pacific coast.

This would be a charming region for the naturalist to explore,

if it were only more healthy. We crossed over the bleak, windy

pass by the snows of Corazon, and the sudden transformation

to the rich vegetation clothing the mountain sides, was

most remarkable, and it gets more and more tropical as one

descends. Humming birds (some very beautiful ones) were

numerous in the higher parts, but at first I was rather dis¬

appointed in the numbers of the other birds. The forests seemed

very silent, and birds scarce, but one had to take into considera¬

tion the vast extent of their feeding ground. At that time we

were only passing straight through on our way to Santo

Domingo, and it was rather late in the day for many birds to be

about. I had expected to find them rather numerous along this

high edge of the forest. As we crossed ridge after ridge, and

descended deeper and deeper into the forest it was interesting to

note the range of the different birds. These forests are almost

uninhabited by anyone but Indians, and the traveller will only

come across a negro’s, or Ecuadorian’s hut, at perhaps the distance

of a day’s ride between each ; and that only on the more beaten

trails.


Our first collecting place was Canzacota, a village of three

miserable huts on a beautiful forest-covered ridge at an altitude



