140 



THE OOLOGIST 



ly runs into the nests unintentionally. 



Mosquitoes have been very bad 

 lately, especially in the evenings and 

 we are using a preparation of cinron- 

 ella and carbolic acid to keep them 

 from our hands and faces. 



January 29th. Arrived early in the 

 morning at Puerto Berrio which is 

 quite a large town with a railroad 

 which runs to the gold mining dis- 

 trict of Medellin. It is a narrow 

 gauge road with old wood burning 

 locomotives, such as we used fifty 

 years ago in the States. Directly af- 

 ter landing we all went collecting in- 

 to the swamps back from the river, 

 returning at noon with fifty birds, 

 many of them new to the trip. I se- 

 cured a fine pair of woodpeckers, the 

 male being the same golden hue as 

 cur flicker, with red crest and heavy 

 spotting on the breast. O'Connel 

 found the egg of a large goatsucker 

 (Nyctibius) deposited upon a stump 

 in a clearing close to heavy woods. 

 The first Toucans of the trip were al- 

 so taken today, together with a new 

 Marmosette monkey. At this locality 

 I found every kind of cover, from open 

 hillsides along the railroads cuts, to 

 treacherous swamps and heavy jungle. 

 Many strange swallows were found 

 burrowing in the sandy banks by the 

 railroad. Macaws and paraquetts are 

 numerous and I took three of the 

 latter which were tiny vivid green 

 and blue birds new to the expedition. 

 The afternoon was spent skinning 

 and preparing our specimens. 



January 30th. Still at Puerto Ber- 

 rio. We collected fifty more birds to- 

 day which makes a total of 300 birds 

 since we left Barranquilla. This re- 

 sult of our river journey has proved 

 highly pleasing to Chapman, who did 

 not contemplate active work until 

 after we left the steamer. One bird 

 that I secured today, possessed a 

 song very similar to that of a Robin, 



but upon bringing it down I was sur- 

 prised to find it a near relative of the 

 flycatcher tribe, with wide flat handi- 

 bles and bristles around the nostrils. 



Chapman took an apparently new 

 sub-species of yellow-throat. It is 

 similar to ours, but very much larger 

 and gray-crowned. Cherrie took a 

 nice set of two Nictrodromus albil- 

 rolis which he turned oved to me t'j 

 prepare. 



January 31st. Left Puerto Berrio 

 this morning at 3 a. m. after an in- 

 teresting time spent in company with 

 several natives who showed us the 

 sights of tlieir town. We stopped 

 for fuel just before noon. Cherrie 

 and Fuertes went ashore and secured 

 a few specimen. Later, in the after- 

 noon, we stopped again at Puerto 

 Nino. Here we took four beautiful 

 blue and yellow makaws, two large 

 doves and a trogon. 



February 1st. Arrived at La Dor- 

 ada at 8 a. m. There is nothing here 

 save for the railroad which runs to 

 Honda, the town from whence we are 

 to start our Andean journey. At 1 p. 

 m. we left the steamer and took the 

 railroad for Honda, reaching our des- 

 tination at 2:30. This is anotner nar- 

 row gauge road with wood burning 

 engines of the old type with great 

 flaring funnels. They are well cared 

 for, however, and the roadbed is in 

 good condition. 



The scenery along the route is 

 quite varied and different from that 

 which we have been seeing from the 

 steamer. Within a few minutes after 

 leaving La Dorada, one gets into the 

 foot hills of the Andes. They are 

 covered in places with rich vegeta- 

 tion, yet in others they are quite bare, 

 or covered with short, vivid green 

 grases. At their base, the river rush- 

 es along, like a great yellow serpent, 

 towards the sea. These hills range 

 from three hunlred, to a thousand 



