172 



THE OOLOGIST 



bird boxes which are always well 

 filled. 



Also we are "death on cats." Our 

 family has killed about 12 strays in 

 the last year. 



Johnson Neff, 

 Marionville, Mo. 



Bird Collecting in Eastern Colombia 



Paul G. Howes 



IV 



Our quarters at the Hotel American 

 consist of two large rooms opening 

 upon a small courtyard filled with 

 tropical vegetation. The rooms are 

 high-ceilinged and airy, with windows 

 strongly barred like those of a jail. 

 The floors are of big cement blocks 

 and the walls painted a delicate green 

 which makes everything seem cool 

 despite the climate. Our windovv's 

 open directly upon the Main street 

 of the town and as all the houses ar^ 

 one story affairs, we have a full view 

 of all that goes on without. A pas- 

 sageway leads from the rooms to a 

 second court, more elaborately plant- 

 ed with flowering shrubs, palms and 

 sweet scented blossoms. There is a 

 tiny pond in the center, and under 

 the covered patio which surrounds it, 

 our meals are served. 



Our first repast was the evening 

 meal or 'Comida.' T\"e dined upon 

 native dishes, deliciously cooked and 

 seasoned and served to the music of 

 two native artists with their guitars. 

 "^Iiat a contrast to the dingy river 

 steamer with its vile food ! It seems 

 strange indeed to find such comforts, 

 some four hundred miles inland, but 

 we are still in touch with civilization 

 and all are making the most of it be- 

 fore our journey into the mountains 

 begins. 



The old town of Honda is remark- 

 ably interesting. It is typically Span- 

 ish with barred windows in all the 

 houses where the Senoritas may sit 



each scented evening to gaze upon the 

 passers by. The streets are of cobble 

 stones and the houses painted in pale 

 shades of red, blue and gray with red 

 tile roofs. Large trees with beautiful 

 thick foliage are abundant in the 

 places and courtyards and here and 

 there, higher up in the hills, an old 

 church gleams white against the foot 

 hills in the background. 



The market place is a ruined 

 church. In the cubby holes formed 

 by the fallen stones native merchants 

 display their wares to advantage. One 

 may purchase food, clothes, scarfs, 

 pottery of various sorts and household 

 goods, such as the poor Colombian 

 uses in his daily life. I learned that 

 the ruined church was the scenic of a 

 most bloody rlaugllter during a former 

 revolution. Several hundred of the 

 uprisers were trapped within its walls 

 and hacked to pieces by their oppon- 

 ents. The church was then raised and 

 had been left ever since in a ruined 

 condition. 



There are one or two drawbacks to 

 Honda, chief among them being the 

 presence of many lepers and numer- 

 ous individuals with frightful cases of 

 goitre and running sores. Some of 

 them that I saw in the streets of the 

 town could scarcely walk from the 

 condition of their legs which were 

 terribly swollen, raw, and often 

 clustered with flies and dirt. This 

 condition .undoubtedly comes from the 

 dreaded chiger, an insect that burrows 

 under the toe-nails and if not re- 

 moved and properly treated, leads to 

 the condition described above. 



On February 2nd and .3d, we all 

 went collecting back of Honda, taking 

 about fifty birds in all. The valleys 

 between the surrounding hills proved 

 excellent collecting grounds and we 

 found fine quail shooting in the fields 

 of knee-high grass near the river. 

 Cherrie found a nest of a motmot in 



