THE OOLOGIST 



17 



Bird Collecting In Eastern Colombia 



Paul G. Howes 



PART VIII 



March 13th. Chapman and I left 

 Villavicencio at 7:30 a. m. Having a 

 two hour ride before us we decided to 

 take it easy and collect on the way. 

 We stopped first about a mile from 

 the town, tying our horses in the 

 bushes and then going off towards the 

 Parado river to hunt. This turned out 

 to be a good idea as Chapman shot a 

 new kind of Orapendula and I got a 

 beautiful new Capito. Altogether we 

 took sixteen birds. It was then dis- 

 covered that the tripod had been left 

 at Villavicencio so I had to go back 

 and get it. This delay was short as I 

 had a fine spirited horse, and we 

 finally reached Buenavista at noon. 



Here we were received by the whole 

 family with open arms. This house 

 is very nice, being second only in my 

 opinion to Consuelo. The food is ex- 

 ceptional and the place fairly clean. 

 After Almuerzo, (Lunch) we went off 

 into the finest and largest tropical 

 forest that I have ever seen. The 

 trees are huge moss grown ones cov- 

 ered with other parasitic growth 

 which drop countless numbeis of 

 lianas and bush ropes to the earth. 

 The ground is thickly grown with tree 

 ferns, mosses, and white lilies which 

 give off a delicious perfume. 



The forest, although huge and 

 dense, is open enough underneath to 

 allow one to go most anywnere, witn- 

 out using a knife. We followed a 

 little icy stream which runs through 

 the woods winding in and out among 

 boulders and moss-grown logs. Half 

 a mile in we struck the Parado once 

 more, here but a mountain brook un- 

 der the branches of towering Ceibas 

 and Purple-hearts. The water was icy 

 cold and clear as crystal with a bed of 

 rough pebbles and sand. We made 

 several photographs and then turned 



back, as it was nearly three o'clock, 

 with sixteen birds to be skinned. 



We finished at five and then went 

 out for a short while before Comida, 

 (supper). I shot a very valuable 

 species of Conophoga and Chapman 

 took a chestnut-naped swift. The light 

 in the jungle is almost cut off by five 

 o'clock and hunting is difficult at this 

 hour, yet there are many birds out, 

 that one does not see during the hotter 

 hours of the day. The temperature 

 here is perfect and the forest actually 

 cool, in fact it is ideal for the natural- 

 ist. 



The house is situated on top of a 

 ridge on the trail to Bogota. It is a 

 remarkable situation from the fact 

 that on the north and northwestern 

 sides one looks up a gorgeous valley 

 with a background or mountains 

 14,200 feet high, while on the south 

 and east are the Llanos, flat plains 

 two thousand feet below, where rivers 

 may be seen, their whole snake like 

 courses winding about for many rnile^ 

 until they are lost in the distant haze. 

 Other yellow patches appear like great 

 bodies of water, but these are the yel- 

 low grasses of the plains. The 

 scenery is surpassed only by the 

 snow-capped mountains as seen from 

 the trail at Consuelo. 



March 14th. I was out at dawn thi 3 

 morning, reaching the dark forest to 

 the east by 6 a. m. Stayed out until 

 eleven and in this time succeeded in 

 taking nine of the difficult forest 

 birds, together with a small black 

 squirrel. Those of interest were a 

 fine Dacnus, a pair of fine flycatchers, 

 a rare ant thrush, a wood huer, the 

 female of the Capito I shot yesterday 

 and a new blue crowned hummer. 

 Chapman went into the western forest 

 and took several photographs and col- 

 lected three beautiful specimens of 

 pipradae. In these three birds he had 

 two, new to the expedition. One a 



