100 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



Birds of the Paramo Zone. 



*Capella jamesoni Cinclodes oreohates 



Oxypogon cyanolcemus Troglodytes monticola 



Leptasthenura andicola extima *Phrygilus unicolor nivarius 



*Asthenes wyatti wyatti 



Forms here marked with an asterisk range downward into the Tem- 

 perate Zone. 



Faunal Affinities. — Omitting Ramphomicron dorsale and Catamenia 

 alpica, which have already been discussed under the Temperate Zone, 

 there remain only seven species of undoubtedly Paramo Zone affinities, 

 as against nineteen known from the Andes of Colombia — a sufficiently 

 significant comparison. But even these show a degree of specializa- 

 tion in keeping with what we have been led to expect from a study 

 of the fauna of the lower zones. Capella jamesoni and Cinclodes 

 oreobates are the only forms which are found unchanged in the Colom- 

 bian Andes, as well as in the Andes of Venezuela. Asthenes wyatti 

 wyatti was described from the Eastern Andes, but there is reason to 

 believe that the Sierra Nevada bird is in reality distinct. Oxypogon 

 cyanolcemus (see Figure 9) is a representative of Oxypogon guerinii 

 of the Eastern Andes and Oxypogon lindenii of the Venezuelan Andes; 

 Leptasthenura andicola extima is similarly a representative of Lepta- 

 sthenura andicola exterior and Leptasthenura andicola certhia of the 

 same regions respectively; and Phrygilus unicolor nivarius is also, 

 similarly related to Phrygilus unicolor geospizopsis. It is significant 

 in the case of the Phrygilus that the Santa Marta form is apparently 

 the same as the bird from the Andes of Venezuela. Only Troglodytes 

 monticola appears to have no very close relative, but it belongs to the 

 same group as Troglodytes solstitialis and Troglodytes solitarius, both 

 alticoline but not Paramo Zone forms. 



We reach the same conclusion with regard to the Paramo Zone of 

 the Sierra Nevada as we have with the two zones below, namely, that 

 its fauna has been derived by latitudinal extension from the coast 

 range of Venezuela, and subsequently isolated by submergence of the 

 greater part of this range. The fact that such Paramo Zone forms 

 exist here argues that this submerged mountain chain must have 

 attained a height sufficient to permit such an extension of range. Pos- 

 sibly 11,000 or 12,000 feet would have sufficed, if we are justified in 



