Todd-Carriker : Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 45 



comfortable experience. On account of the long delay in getting' 

 away froin Don Diego we were now much behind our intended 

 schedule, two whole weeks having been lost between the last day's col- 

 lecting at Don Diego and the first work at Dibulla. However, splendid 

 results had been secured at Don Diego, where five hundred specimens 

 were collected between January 14 and February 7. 



Pack-animals proved to be unobtainable in Dibulla and it was neces- 

 sary to send to Pueblo Viejo for them. The resulting delay was very 

 profitably utilized at Dibulla, eight days' collecting yielding nearly 

 two hundred specimens: As soon as the oxen arrived, we began to 

 pack up and got started the next day for Pueblo Viejo, reaching the 

 place about 2 P. M. on the second day, after passing the night in a 

 rude hut in the forest, built for that purpose. With a good saddle- 

 horse it is possible to make the trip from Dibulla to Pueblo Viejo in 

 one day, but with oxen for pack-animals nearly two days are required, 

 and in the rainy season perhaps even more. Leaving the beach, the 

 road crosses a stretch of flat littoral of considerable width, perhaps 

 eight or ten miles, before the foothills are reached. This littoral is 

 interspersed with savanna and woodlands, and has many palms. These 

 savannas are evidently due to. deforestation and repeated burnings. 

 After the foothills are reached the heavy humid forest begins, and 

 continues unbroken to Pueblo Viejo, with only here and there a small 

 clearing to break the monotony. 



It was a delightful change to reach the cool climate of Pueblo Viejo 

 and escape the flies and mosquitoes of the lowlands, but we still had, 

 as we soon discovered, the omnipresent wood-tick, in even greater 

 abundance than on the coast, the savannas around the village being 

 alive with them, as well as the second-growth scrub where the cattle 

 ranged. It was almost a daily occurrence, upon returning from the 

 hunt, to have to take a bath in kerosene, and then boil one's clothes tu 

 kill the ticks. We pitched our tent on the bank of the Rio Ancha 

 about a half-mile below the village, thus escaping too-frequent visits 

 from the natives, as well as from their pigs and dogs. The vicinity 

 of Pueblo Viejo presents an unusually fine field for operations, there 

 being a great variety of ecological conditions within a few hours' 

 tramp from the village, situated as it is just at the upper edge of the 

 foothills, and at the base of the higher ranges. Collecting was carried 

 on here from March 4 to 21 inclusive, nearly four hundred specimens 



