THE OOLOGIST 



117 



sary to wait twelve hours fbr the wind 

 to abate before proceeding up stream, 

 against a heavy current. 



On the morning of January 21st we 

 stopped to take on wood for fuel at a 

 little thatched village near Calama. 

 Here we all pilled ashore with our 

 guns and did our first collecting, tak- 

 ing twenty-five birds of various 

 species. I shall never forget this first 

 trip ashore in Colombia. It was my 

 first exeprience with tropical collect- 

 ing and one that I shall always look 

 back upon as a great day in my life. 

 The heat, until one becomes ac- 

 customed to it, is intense, yet it is 

 dry, and does not give one the great 

 discomfort expected. I did not mind 

 it. In fact I enjoyed it, although the 

 sweat poured off me in torrents. 



In every tree and bush there were 

 birds. One could not help shootin-; 

 them! Beautiful green jacamas, 

 orange colored finshes, grassquits 

 hummers and flycatchers galore. The 

 ground was alive with beautifully 

 colored lizards, striped, in blue and 

 green and brown. Along the river 

 bank were alligators sunning them- 

 selves below the tunnels of swallows 

 and kingfishers! It was like a dream, 

 and I shall never forget these first 

 few moments of collecting in Colom- 

 bia. 



We spent the afternoon skinnint 

 our specimens on the boat as Wc, 

 steamed up the rivei' in sight of the 

 Santa Marta mountains. The captain 

 of our steamer proved to be a very 

 amiable man and ordered the dinino; 

 room to be used as our skinning 

 bench. The natives on the boat were 

 greatly interested in the operation of 

 making a bird skin and soon we be- 

 came the center of interest to all on 

 board. Their surprise was very comi- 

 cal when they saw what gorgeous 

 birds could be found in a few moments 



on shore, and later our daily hunt in 

 the bush while taking fuel, became 

 the chief event of the day. Even thfi 

 captain showed his growing interest 

 in our work by giving an extra warn- 

 ing whistle to call us back to the 

 steamer when enough wood had been 

 placed abroad. 



In the evening we drew up to the 

 town of Calama where Fuertes shot a 

 large fruit bat and Chapman secured 

 a fine specimen of night hawk. 



January 22nd. Still at Calama. 

 Went out about 5 a. m. and secured 

 eight good specimens before break- 

 fast. The character of the land here 

 is a curious mixture, just between 

 tropical jungle and desert. Cactus of 

 various species flourish in the sandy 

 soil, while in swamps near by, one 

 finds palms and jungle tangles. At 

 this date a terrible pest of locusts is 

 consuming every green thing that 

 exists. Upon shooting into a tree 

 this morning I stirred up a great hoard 

 of these insects. They were so thick 

 that it appeared as though all the 

 leaves were flying off the tree in every 

 direction. Everywhere there were 

 thousands of the insects, indeed Ii 

 was impossible to walk with comfort 

 or move without crunching their 

 bodies underfoot. They banged one 

 in the face, crawled over ones clothes 

 and made life miserable. Late in the 

 afternoon, after leaving Calama, we 

 passed a great cloud of these locusts 

 which actually darkened the sky 

 much as a snow-storm does. Many 

 huge alligators were noticed sleeping 

 upon the river banks with their 

 mouths stretched wide open as though 

 waiting for some unwary creature to 

 swim in. We also saw two Capabaras 

 on the river bank. These are huge 

 rodents, much like a Guinea pig, but 

 half the size of a bear. The birds 

 taken yesterday and today totaled 



