THE OOLOGIST 



33 



We reached a house called the 

 Urebe, in the town of Fusugasuga at 

 2.30 p. m., tired and very footsore as 

 we had made nearly 21 miles in six 

 hours mostly through high altitudes. 

 The rest of the men arrived about an 

 hour after we did but our packs did 

 not come until late in the evening. 

 After a good supper, all hands turned 

 in at once in order to be fresh for the 

 next day's collecting. 



March 23d. Easter Sunday dawned 

 clear and cool and all were up and 

 out by sunrise. I followed a trail 

 which led up to the cloud-forested 

 hills about two miles from the town. 

 First I took a nice vireo and a species 

 of callestes in the light growth before 

 the forest is reached. From here I 

 went on, following a small stream un- 

 til I got into the forest in a pocket in 

 the hills. Here the going was very 

 bad as the ground was well grown and 

 I could not see where I was stepping 

 without using my knife. I took no 

 specimens here and soon came down 

 again in the lighter growth where I 

 secured six more good birds by eleven 

 o'clock, and then returned with Cher- 

 rie, whom I met on the trail. My 

 birds included a good Ant thrush, a 

 black and yellow Setophaga, Black- 

 burnian warbler, callistes and a beaut- 

 iful pair of Burremon finches. From 

 the hill where I was shooting there is 

 a fine view over the valley and plain, 

 and in the far distance one can see 

 the central range of the Andes. 



The collecting here is not very 

 good and the present plan is to leave 

 for the fine forest that we passed 

 through yesterday, on Tuesday morn- 

 ing. 



March 24th. This morning I went 

 out by the same trail as yesterday but 

 went much higher into the cloud for- 

 est, 7500 feet altitude and 1500. feet 

 above Fusugasuga. Here the collect- 

 ing was much more interesting and 



most of the birds were new, but 1 

 lost many in the thick undergrowth. 

 At ten o'clock, the clouds came down 

 through the forest so that I was en- 

 tirely shut in. In a few minutes more 

 it began to rain which continued for 

 the remainder of the morning. 



My first bird was a fine wood wren 

 which I found on the edge of the big 

 forest. This species is very wary and 

 possesses a wonderfully full and rich 

 song filled with endless variations. 

 Next I shot a female Solitaire in fine 

 plumage. After this I lost several 

 birds and it was nearly an hour before 

 I succeeded in bringing down a fine 

 yellow-throated Chloraspingus with 

 my aux, from the very top of a huge 

 Ceiba tree. 



Next I collected a very fine full 

 plumaged hummer with green under 

 parts and a very brilliant patch on the 

 throat, bright blue, fading through 

 many shades into coppery violet. The 

 next specimen was a yellow and black 

 calospiza and in this same spot I se- 

 cured a Saltator in poor plumage 

 which however proved a prize, being- 

 new to science. It has since been 

 given the name; Saltator atripennis 

 caniceps. My last bird I shot on the 

 way home, a fine blue Calospiza. 



Reached the house at noon, very 

 wet and spent the afternoon skinning. 

 O'Connel took a good rat in his traps 

 last night and this morning Furetes 

 brought in a fine dark squirrel. Cher- 

 rie took two more species of Callistes 

 making nine varieties taken at Fusu- 

 gasuga. 



March 25th. We left early this 

 morning with no particular stopping- 

 place in view, except that it must be 

 nearer to the big forest than we have 

 been for the last few days. After rid- 

 ing about two hours, collecting on the 

 way, we came to a Colombian ranch- 

 man's home. He could not take us in 

 but very kindly offered us the use of 



