180 



THE OOLOGISt 



Bird Collecting In Eastern Colombia 



Paul G. Howes 



V 



February lOtli. We left Honda tli-s 

 morning with eleven burros and 

 horses, two mule drivers and our 

 selves, making in all, quite a caval- 

 cade. We arrived once more at Con- 

 suelo at 3:30 where we had lunch. 

 The Senorita was over-joyyed to see 

 us back so soon and all regretted that 

 we had to leave directly after lunch. 

 In the afternoon the scenery was very 

 wonderful and we could still get an 

 occasional glimpse of snow-crowned 

 Tolima and Ruiz. In the evening we 

 came down into a valley in which is 

 situated a little town named Guaduas, 

 at 3300 feet altitude. Here we ob- 

 tained supper, consisting of bread and 

 chicken with its well swollen ovaries 

 served separately as a delicacy. We 

 spent the night in an old posada and 

 left at seven the next morning after 

 a good nights rest, despite the hard 

 boards and dirt. 



From here the trail led constantly 

 upward until we reached an altitude 

 of six thousand feet. At 5000 feet we 

 entered the edge of the cloud forest 

 and heard the Andrean White-throat- 

 ed sparrow singing. At the higher 

 altitude we saw several Planesticus 

 gigas, a huge robin, in an oak forest. 

 Early in the afternoon we came down 

 again into Billete at 3000 feet where 

 we put up for the night, wherever 

 they would take us in. We had sev- 

 eral hours to look over the town which 

 is a quaint old place with a large 

 square and church. In the center of 

 the square, stands the largest Ceiba 

 tree that I have ever seen, probably 

 six hundred years old. 



The next morning we were off at 

 daylight for a thirty mile ride up over 

 the steeper ridges. The scenery was 

 very beautiful especially in the early 

 morning hours. All day long we 



climbed one ridge after another un- 

 til we finally made the top-most one 

 at 8800 feet. Then as if by magic the 

 hills faded away and we found our- 

 selves at last upon the great historic 

 Chibcha plain of Bogota. It is a huge 

 fertile, level and cultivated valley, 

 once the bed of a lake, but now the 

 farming district of Colombia. 



At this point I was suddenly taken 

 with a violent attack of intermittant 

 fever which nearly caused my col- 

 lapse. The last hour of that ride to 

 the railroad, seemed like years of 

 agony, yet I shall never forget the 

 wonderful sight of Bogota, this most 

 hidden of Capitols so many hundreds 

 of miles from the sea. We loaded our 

 packs on the train at Facatativa and 

 an hour later rolled into the city. Flat 

 and gleaming white, with the great 

 cathedral standing up above all the 

 other buildings, the whole backed up 

 by cloud reaching purple hills, ten 

 thousand feet high with their guard- 

 ing monastaries, made a sight worth 

 traveling around the globe to see. 



February 18th. O'Connel and Ring 

 went out from the city today to the 

 plain, where they succeeded in taking 

 twenty good birds including a little 

 species of horned lark and also sev- 

 eral meadow larks much like ours, 

 which we noted coming over the 

 mountains from Honda. A fine cara- 

 cara, several species of porzana, yel- 

 low warblers and small finches made 

 up the rest of their bags. I was too 

 sick to leave my bed so they skinned 

 birds in my room to keep me com- 

 pany. 



We are staying at the best hotel in 

 town, the Europa, which is compar- 

 able to a third rate house at home, 

 yet Bogota has a population of 

 100.000. 



February 21st. Chapman, Cherrie 

 and O'Connel went on into the field 

 today. Fuertes and Ring went col- 



