48 



THE OOLOGIST 



BIRD COLLECTING IN EASTERN 



COLOMBIA 



By Paul G. Howes 



PART X 



March 31. — This morning, Cherrie, 

 Ring and I left for El Roble, about 

 three miles up the mountain above 

 Aguadita, and at an altitude of 7850 

 feet. We walked, and our packs came 

 up by mule. We found the house bet- 

 ter than the one at Aguidita, being of 

 wood with wooden floors, but no beds. 

 Ring and I are in one room, which is 

 just big enough for our air mattresses 

 and patakas and Cherrie hangs out 

 next door in a still smaller coop. We 

 do our skinning out in back, near the 

 open air kitchen, which is an interest- 

 ing place fitted with mud bake ovens 

 and trios of stones placed in triangles, 

 on which the pots are set to boil. 



The scenery is beautiful here and 

 today the sunshine was very welcome 

 after the dismal climate of Aguadita. 

 The front of the house faces big for- 

 ested mountains which rise into the 

 clouds and in the center of one of the 

 most distant hills there is a two hun- 

 dred foot waterfall, whose roaring tor- 

 ent may be plainly heard from our 

 station. Directly in front, and in back 

 also, are beautiful green pastures, 

 backed up by fine forest, filled with 

 birds and animals. A short hunt this 

 afternoon brought in several new birds 

 including a very large species of gral- 

 laria. 



April 1. We made an early start 

 this morning, being anxious to get in- 

 to the woods when the birds are most 

 active. I found that the woods were 

 very difficult to penetrate but the 

 species that I found repaid for the 

 time and effort spent in securing 

 them. I took a new tanager, a new 

 synalaxsis, a violet-eared hummer and 

 many other desirable birds. Ring and 

 Cherrie came in each with a new 

 wren, Cherrie's undoubtedly new to 



science, Ring's was being carried by 

 a sparrow hawk. 



There is a small parrot here and 

 several larger ones less common. 

 O'Connel and Fuertes arrived this af- 

 ternoon from Aguadita. 



April 2nd. Two new parrots, one 

 by Fuertes and one by Ring marked 

 todays chief items of interest. O'Con- 

 nel brought in a fine little bird, blue 

 with pure white crown and related to 

 the honeycreepers and also one of the 

 huge humming birds of this region. I 

 had a very poor day securing only six 

 birds. One was the native Goldfinch 

 which I have not taken before. I lost 

 several in the heavy cover when they 

 fell and many of my shells were bad, 

 the powder having degenerated from 

 the continual wet days of the past 

 weeks. 



We sent Manuel, our Indian, back to 

 Bogota today to look up Chapman 

 from whom we have heard nothing 

 since he was taken with the fever. 



April 3d. I found a fine trail this 

 morning leading through all kinds of 

 cover. I secured fourteen birds by ten 

 o'clock including Red-faced callospiza, 

 verios, warblers, pachyramphus, and 

 four hummers, two of them the tiny 

 purple short-billed species in perfect 

 condition. 



April 4th. Chapman arrived today 

 completely recovered from the fever 

 which he described as having been as 

 painful and discouraging as my case 

 was. I had a poor day so spent the 

 time skinning for the others. . 



While in the jungle this morning I 

 came upon an old deserted Indian hut. 

 It was very primitive in every way 

 and still hanging on a wooden bar 

 where the fire had been, was a pot 

 hook made from natural root and 

 perfectly shaped for the purpose. It 

 was tied to the bar with palm fiber 

 which was blackened by the fires of 

 yore. This I collected as an interest- 



