THE OOLOQIST 



181 



lecting and secured several birds, 

 mostly rail and bittern although they 

 had two female yellow-headed black- 

 birds. 



February 27th. Just over my sec- 

 ond attack of fever. This sickness 

 which is due in my case to the bite 

 of an insect, is accompanied with ter- 

 rible pains and backache which make 

 any movement agony and sleep out of 

 the question for days at a time. The 

 insect laid eggs in my leg and sev- 

 eral maggots had many a square meal 

 before I discovered their presence. 

 The rest of the expedition went on 

 into the mountains on the 23d and I 

 shall make the journey alone after I 

 gather some strength. 



There is a museum here at Bogota, 

 founded by a fine old priest at tliG 

 Catholic school. He has brought to- 

 gether a wonderful amount of ma- 

 terial for one man. It is extremely 

 valuable owing to his accuracy and 

 ability to secure so much local ma- 

 terial. The man himself is a delight- 

 ful priest of French decent. He took 

 me all through his museum and school 

 talking in broken English and oc- 

 casionally breaking into pure French 

 or Spanish. 



During my illness, Mr. DuBois, the 

 American Minister of Colombia, hai 

 been very kind to me. He sent me a 

 box of saltine crackers, a pot of 

 smoked beef and a bottle of Sauterns, 

 together with all the American news- 

 papers and magazines from the 

 legation. He has invited me to 

 dinner tomorrow. 



March 1st. Today I met Lord Mur- 

 ray of the British Legation. He was 

 equally kind to me and sent his . sec- 

 retary with several tins of peaches, 

 cocoa tongue and sardines. These I 

 shall keep and take over the mount- 

 ains to the rest of the crowd when I 

 leave next week. 



March 5th. I expected to leave to- 



day, but could not secure a horse, so 

 spent the day packing up the odds 

 and ends to be left here until our re- 

 turn. I am going to travel very light 

 on this trip, carrying only my air- 

 matress, one change of under-clothes, 

 sweater, hunting coat, gun and knife, 

 and my note book which I always 

 carry wherever 1 go. Received my 

 first letter from home today, just two 

 months after leaving. 



March 6th. Noted a pair of Andean 

 White-throated sparrows building a 

 nest in the courtyard of the hotel. 

 The nest is situated in a pine tree 

 about thirty feet up and placed in the 

 center of a horizontal limb. The 

 birds were gathering moss from the 

 orchid plants in the garden. Dr. Mon- 

 toya, my Colombian friend called to- 

 day and pronounced me well, after 

 giving me my eleventh injection of 

 arsenic. I bought several interesting 

 wood carvings today, also two wax 

 figures and several exquisite feather 

 ornaments and scenes made by the 

 natives. 



March 7th. At last I succeeded in 

 securing a horse for the journey over 

 the big range to the east. I have 

 packed up all my clothes and am wait- 

 ing in my field rig impatiently for the 

 morning when I can start once more 

 into the .field to join the others, some- 

 where in those beautiful mountains. 

 To be continued. 



Late Ruby-crowned Kinglets in 

 Pennsylvania. 



On December 14, 1916, I saw a male 

 Ruby-crowned Kinglet at Cheltenham, 

 Montgomery County, Pa., wfth a flock 

 of five Golden-crowned Kinglets, in a 

 tree in edge of a wood by the road- 

 side. It is my first December and 

 only winter record of its occurrence 

 in the vicinity of Philadelphia. It 

 was well seen and uttered its charac- 

 teristic chatter and flitted its wings 



