Todd-Carriker : Birds of Santa Marta Region^ Colombia. 127 



kind of crops. The natural vegetation of this part consists of thorny 

 scrub and various species of trees, mostly deciduous, peculiar to this 

 semi-arid belt, besides various species of cacti in abundance. A flat 

 plain extends eastward from the town (along the Rio Manzanares) 

 for a distance of about five miles, a large portion of which is under 

 irrigation and mainly devoted to pastures. To the north of this plain 

 are rugged hills extending down the coast to the eastward as far as 

 the Rio Piedras, while to the south are the foothills of the San Lorenzo. 

 Although Santa Marta figures as a locality for a number of species, 

 as far back as 1853, when Sclater and Bonaparte described certain 

 new forms said to have come from there, there is no certainty that 

 any of these actually came from the immediate vicinity of the town; 

 in fact, we know now (compare remarks on page 22) that some 

 of these old records are absolutely wrong,, and others open to ques- 

 tion. The first Santa Marta records beyond suspicion are those per- 

 taining to a few species of birds noted by Wyatt on December 22, 

 ,1869, during a few hours' sojourn in the place. Next came Simons, 

 who landed here in December, 1878, and remained in this region 

 and its vicinity at least until April of the following year. Mr. 

 Brown collected a few specimens " within five miles of the town " on 

 the eve of his departure for Rio Hacha in February, 1898, but as 

 nearly all his material from Bonda and beyond was also labelled 

 " Santa Marta " it is impossible to separate these specimens except by 

 the dates of collection, and no effort has been made to do this in com- 

 piling the present paper. The comparatively few specimens so labelled 

 by Mr. Smith are of course authentic, as are also those sent in by the 

 junior author, collected from May 15 to 17, 1913. 



Santa Rosa. — A tiny Indian hamlet on the Rio Macotama, a few 

 miles below the point where the trail from Pueblo Viejo enters the 

 Macotama Valley. Its altitude is not known exactly, but must be 

 somewhere around 2,000 feet. 



Sierra del Libano. — See El Libano. 



Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. — The name applied to the entire 

 mountain system of this region, fully described on page 7. As used 

 by Simons on the labels of some of his specimens, it applies to certain 

 points lying at the altitudes indicated on the southern slope of the 

 mountains, near the headwaters of the Rio Guatapuri, by which route 

 Simons ascended in July, 1878, crossing the Paramo de Chiruqua and 

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