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A NATURALIST’S NOTES IN ECUADOR.


By Wai/ter Goodeeeeow,


{Continued from page 177.)


As readers of this paper will have observed, I have not

attempted to follow any scientific sequence in my notes on the

birds of Ecuador, but have treated them as they occurred to me,

merely, as a rule, taking a family separately. In the present

article, I shall have to be still further irregular in the classification

as I am going to write of some of the birds which are found in, and

around Quito, or at corresponding altitudes in other parts of the

country, and which from their habits and distribution, seem to

be eminently suited for cage life in this country. I have already

mentioned the difficulties in the way of bringing birds alive from

the interior of Ecuador, but as a great number of the species are

also to be found in parts of Columbia where the difficulties are

not so great, it is possible that at times some of them may reach

us from there. Many of the birds found around Quito are also

to be found around Bogota in Columbia. Quito is seven days

hard ride from the coast, whereas Bogota is barely two days ride

from the banks of the Magdelena River, from whence one can

take the steamer close down to the port of Savanilla, which is in

direct communication with Riverpool. The altitude of Quito

is 10,000 ft., and it stands at the end of a wide valley on the

central table land of Ecuador, between the Western and Eastern

ranges of the Andes, and on the outer slopes of the Volcano of

Pichincha. The climate is very mild (almost too mild) and much

resembles English spring weather in point of temperature, and

the days are most equable, but the nights and early mornings are

very chilly, and during some months of the year frosts are not at

all uncommon. We spent some considerable time in Quito and

thoroughly explored all the country around. There are no

forests whatever in the immediate neighbourhood, and very little

timber, but the mountains in most parts are covered to a high

altitude with flowering bushes, and it is scarcely a day’s ride

round to the Western side of Pichincha where the forest

commences. To the North of Quito is a fertile plain, El Egido,

encircled by all the giants of the Andes, and all about here birds

abound along the hedge rows, and among the gardens and fruit

trees.


One of the first birds to attract attention—is the Turdus gigas,

whose loud liquid notes may be heard on every side. At first

sight it might be mistaken for our English blackbird, but



