36 ■ Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



characters, or else to have received earlier names, so as to compel 

 their relegation to synonymy. 



The Smith Expedition. — Wholly unaware that any other parties had 

 designs on the same field, the late Mr. Herbert H. Smith, so well 

 known for his previous zoological work in various parts of the Amer- 

 ican tropics, had been for some time, so Dr. Allen tells us, " prepar- 

 ing to thoroughly explore the Santa Marta district of Colombia, both 

 zoologically and botanically, beginning at sea-level and later working 

 up to the highest points of the Sierra, it being his intention to devote 

 from three to five years to the work, aided by a number of assistants. 

 . . While to Mr. Smith is due the credit of organizing and equipping 

 the expedition and' directing its work, he has personally done very 

 little of the actual work of bird collecting, which has been carried on 

 by Mrs. Smith." She was assisted by her niece. Miss Grace H. Hull," 

 and by Mr. A. E. Edmondson, the latter doing most of the work on 

 large birds, and on the nests and eggs. The expedition was under- 

 taken under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, to which the bulk of the collections was to come, but the Car- 

 negie Museum was interested to the extent of a small representation 

 of each species. Mr. Smith's party landed at Santa Marta in March, 

 1898, but for several months thereafter he was himself laid up with 

 a nearly fatal illness, superinduced by the bites of poisonous insects. 

 Cacagualito was his first collecting station, but he soon located at 

 Bonda (already described as the headquarters of Mr. Brown while 

 working in this region a few months earlier), from which as a base 

 excursions were made to various other points in the same general 

 region. Later on he did some work at Valparaiso (now known .as 

 Cincinnati), and on the western slopes of the San Lorenzo and La 

 Horqueta, up to 7,000 or perhaps even 8,000 feet. Although several 

 places on the seacoast were apparently visited at intervals in 1898 

 and 1899, very little bird collecting seems to have been done at any 

 of them with the exception of Cienaga, where a week's work yielded 

 a variety of shore-birds and a few other kinds. In 1900 Mr. Smith's 

 activities were " almost wholly suspended in consequence of the dis- 

 turbed condition of the region, due to a violent insurrection in the im- 

 mediate neighborhood," but in 1901 he made a trip to Don Diego, on 

 the north coast, securing a considerable collection of both birds and 

 mammals. He was obliged to return in September of that year with- 

 out having fully accomplished the objects of his expedition. 



