118 



THE OOLOOI8T 



eighty-five specimens, including, fly- 

 catchers, ground doves. Black grass 

 quit, several bright yellow finches, 

 wrens, verios and a young specimen 

 of our eastern yellow warbler. 



About 6 p. m. the steamer stopped 

 at the village of Tenerife, which 

 stands upon a small hill overlooking 

 the Magdalena. It consists of an old 

 church and a single street, lined with 

 thatched huts. When Colombia was 

 fighting for her freedom, a battle oc- 

 cured at this little town on the hill. 



The next morning we landed at Al- 

 godonal about 5 a. m. We went col- 

 lecting before breakfast and secured 

 many very fine specimens. Here the 

 true tropical forest was more in evi- 

 dence palms and other huge trees be- 

 ing abundant. Much rank under- 

 growth was also growing at the bases 

 of the trees which was so heavy that 

 I was nearly an hour in cutting my 

 Avay to a large Ani which I felled in 

 the bushes. This specimen proved to 

 be a beautiful male Crotophaga major, 

 the first taken by the expedition Ring 

 brought in a fine red and blue makaw. 

 Later in the morning we heard the 

 deep roaring of howling monkeys, a 

 sound familiar to all who have hunt- 

 ed in the South American jungles. 

 To date we have 135 skins represent- 

 ing the river valley fauna. I succeed- 

 ed in securing a bird new to the ex- 

 pedition today (Thamnophilus cirr- 

 hatus). 



A huge oriole, (Ostinops) was also 

 taken by O'Connel from a colony 

 nesting in a tall tree in the forest. 

 These birds construct tough swinging 

 nests of palm fiber which are sus- 

 pended from the tips of the highest 

 and most inaccessable branches. The 

 nests are sometimes four feet in 

 length. (Since writing these notes I 

 have secured nests of this species in 

 British Guiana and found the eggs to 



be bluish white, scrawled and blotched 

 with brown and black.) 



Chapman took two specimens of a 

 species of Motmot. 



After lunch, we spent the remainder 

 of the day skinning and preparing our 

 specimens, although we stopped for a 

 while at Magangue where we took sev- 

 eral cows on board for food. These 

 were forced to swim from shore to 

 the steamer where they were hauled 

 on board by means of a block and 

 tackle placed about their horns. At 

 6 p. m. we stopped again for wood 

 at a tiny village but as all Avere tired 

 after a hard day, nobody went ashore 

 and all hands turned in about nine 

 o'clock to be ready for the morrow. 

 (To be continued) 



An Ohio Sparrow-Rat Club 



The inclosed clipping from our lo- 

 cal paper explains itself. They have 

 been very successful with their club. 

 The losing side pays for the supper 

 but all share in the proceeds of sales 

 of refreshments. W. B. Fulton. 



This clipping describes a sparrow- 

 rat club which recently celebratesd its 

 10th anniversary: 



The club was founded by the farm- 

 ers and farmer boys of the southern 

 part of Orange township for the pur- 

 pose of ridding the community of 

 such pests as rats, sparrows, hawks 

 and weasels. As an incentive to work 

 the club gives an ice cream social on 

 the second Saturday evening of July 

 each year and the proceeds go to the 

 different winners. 



The records show that in five years 

 the club has killed 9,296 sparrows 

 5,879 rats, 78 weasels and 129 hawks. 

 The total count for the five years is 

 46,349. The year 1908 was best for 

 catching English sparrows. In that 

 year 2,267 sparrows met death. 1912 

 was the banner year for the rat hunt- 



