176 



THE OOLOOI8T 



this morning in order to paint and 

 visit the traps. Only two were 

 sprung, one being empty and the other 

 contained a badly broken lana crab! 

 On the way to the traps I saw a fine 

 grey fox. After breakfast at six, we 

 returned to our painting and I 

 finished my first pannel of the 

 great valley. Later we went up the 

 ridge about three hundred feet to the 

 cloud forest. Here I shot nine birds 

 every one new to the trip. Chapman 

 and Fuertes brought in many more 

 including some gorgeous humming 

 birds. Various species of Callistes 

 and Dacnus were common at this al- 

 titude. 



In the cloud forest every twig and 

 branch is covered with thick beauti- 

 ful moss. Several times this morn- 

 ing I became completely surrounded 

 by thick clouds from open places in 

 the woods I could see them far below, 

 over the valley. Found a nest of the 

 little Todorostrum flycatcher near the 

 house in a bush. The nest is a hang- 

 ing ball of grass with a sheltered en- 

 trance on one side. No eggs. After 

 skinning my birds, I re-set the traps 

 and then returned for 'Comida' and 

 bed. 



In the morning I found two good 

 catches in my traps. A spiny-backed 

 pouch rat and a species of 'possum. 

 The rat was a male in fine condition 

 and the other specimen a female in 

 equally good shape. We did not paint 

 this morning on account of the clouds 

 which filled the valley. They cleared 

 away later while we were in the cloud 

 forest, so we hurried back and got in 

 some more work on the canvases. 



About fifteen birds were collected, 

 including our black and white warb- 

 ler and Golden-winged warbler. Rose- 

 breasted grosbeak is quite common 

 wintering here. 



February 8th. Nothing in my traps. 

 Resumed work and finished the paint- 



ings and sketches. Then we packed 

 up, loaded the animals and started 

 back to Honda to join the others, 

 where we arrived about 4 o'clock. 



February 9th. The other members 

 arrived from El Triumpho, a ranch 

 outside of Honda, this morning, bring- 

 ing about 90 birds and several ani- 

 mals which O'Connel trapped. The 

 remainder of the day was spent in 

 packing up and making arrangements 

 for our journey to Bogota, the inland 

 capitol of Colombia. We are going 

 to ride all the way and our pack train 

 consists of eleven animals and two 

 drivers. Bogota is situated at an al- 

 titude of 8800 feet and all are look- 

 ing forward to the journey over the 

 first range of the Andes. 



To be continued. 



The Trumpeter Swan 



Last Spring the Editor sent one of 

 the two specimens of the male Trum- 

 peter Swan owned by him t^^ the 

 National Zoological Park at Washing- 

 ton, D. C. with the hope that it might 

 mate up with the female there, and 

 thereby assist in rescuing this rare 

 species for exxtinction. 



Mr. N. Hollister, the Superintendent 

 of the National Zoological Park writes 

 us under date of August 23d as fol- 

 lows : 



"There is nothing to report on the 

 Trumpeter Swan except that your 

 bird is well and in excellent condition. 

 The two birds have an ideal place, a 

 roomy enclosure with plenty of water 

 and lots of retired land space. They 

 seem to get along splendidly together 

 and stay close to one another all the 

 time, but we have observed no evi- 

 dence of mating. I think they were 

 placed together too late in the spring 

 for nesting this year, and they both 

 moulted very early. 



"They do well together and are so 

 contented that I hope you will agree 



