Todd-Caeriker : Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. Ill 



Lorenzo de Santa Marta. This part of the mountain has been de- 

 forested, probably by fire, and is covered with grass, shrubbery, a kind 

 of bamboo cane, and a large species of bromelia. The altitude of the 

 Cerro Quemado is given as 8,300 feet by the junior author. 



Cesar. — The largest river of this region, taking its rise on the south 

 slopes of the Sierra Nevada, and receiving nearly all the drainage 

 from this part as well as from the western slopes of the Eastern Andes 

 at their northern extremity. It flows southwestward through a level 

 plain, forested in part, and in part savanna, to eventually join the 

 Magdalena through a complicated lake and delta system. The upper 

 part of its valley has numerous towns, villages, and plantations. 



Chinchicua. — "A splendid mountain mass about 11,000 feet in 

 height," in the southern part of the Sierra Nevada, referred to by 

 Simons, who speaks of it as being the only wooded portion in this part 

 of the range, and adds that it " intercepts and condenses all the clouds 

 coming from the northeast ; so that it is eternally raining in this place." 

 Leading down to the southwest of this mountain is the Valley of Chin- 

 chicua, lying at an elevation of 6,500 feet, where Simons collected a 

 few Subtropical Zone birds on February 15, April 15 and 16, 1878. 



Chirua. — The name of a large valley and of the stream which drains 

 it, lying on the north slope of the Sierra Nevada, east of the trail 

 leading up the mountain from Dibulla. The valley extends east and 

 west, and the stream empties into the Rio Ancha opposite the village of 

 Pueblo Viejo. At its lower end it has an altitude of 2,000 feet, rising 

 to 3,500 feet at its head. It is surrounded with mountains, rising to a 

 height of 5,000 feet on the south side, known as the Heights of Chirua. 

 The valley is sparsely inhabited by Indians, and nearly the whole of 

 the lower portion has been cleared of forest in years gone by, and is 

 given up to grass, second-growth scrub, or the primitive cultivations 

 of the Indians. Both the valley and the heights were worked by the 

 junior author in March, 1914. The avifauna of the latter is exclu- 

 sively Subtropical in character, but some Tropical forms enter the 

 valley. Simons secured a specimen of Basileuterus mesochrysus here 

 at an elevation of 4,000 feet on August 21, 1878, and Mr. Brown 

 made collections at this point also, in February and March, 1899, secur- 

 ing the types of several new forms. He gives the altitude as " 7,000 

 feet," which is of course an overestimate, but it is evident that most 

 of the specimens he collected here came from the higher elevations. 

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