1917.] Chapman, LHstribuiion of Bird-life in Colombia. 17 



the necessity for exactness in labeling and his data, as published, are there- 

 fore most misleading. To illustrate: from "Sta. Elena" Sclater and Salvin 

 record among the Wrens alone, Thryophilus nigricapillus, Thryothorus 

 mystacalis, and Cinnicerthia imibrunnea, species which, respectively, are 

 characteristic of the Tropical, Subtropical, and Temperate Zones and 

 whose occurrence at one place, therefore, would be as remarkable as the 

 successful cultivation of cacao and wheat in adjoining fields! 



Many similar instances could be given; thus Troglodytes solstitialis, a 

 species of the Temperate Zone, is recorded from "Nechi" (sic), a locality in 

 the Tropical Zone, and this inaccuracy destroys, in a measure, the value of 

 the paper for distributional purposes. Taken, however, with what we have 

 learned of the zonal distribution of Colombian birds, and particularly in 

 connection with Miller and Boyle's work (Expedition No. 8), Salmon's 

 paper gives us an excellent understanding of the avifauna of Antioquia. 

 His notes on nesting-habits and -carefully made collection of nests and eggs 

 form a noteworthy contribution to our limited knowledge of the life-histories 

 of Colombian birds. 



Delattre in Western Colombia. — In western Colombia small ornithological 

 collections were made at least as early as 1846, when Delattre and Bourcier 

 published in the Revue Zoologique descriptions of new Hummingbirds 

 secured by the first-named author on a journey from Buenaventura through 

 Juntas (= Cisneros) to Call, Popayan and Pasto. Other birds collected 

 by Delattre were described by Laf resnaye, but the total number of specimens 

 secured by this early French traveller does not appear to have been very 

 large. 



The Michler Expedition to the Atrato. — Our first real knowledge of the 

 character of Colombia's Pacific coast avifauna we owe to Chas. J. Wood 

 and Wm. S. Wood, Jr., who, as naturalists of the expedition under Lieut. 

 Michler to discover a possible route for a canal from the lower Atrato to the 

 Pacific, made a collection representing 144 species of birds on the lower 

 Atrato, the Truando, and Nercua Rivers. This collection was reported 

 on by Cassin in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia for 1860 (pp. 132-144, 188-197), and his paper still remains 

 practically our only source of information of the bird-life of this part of 

 Colombia. Of the four new species therein described by him, Pittasoma 

 michleri, type of a new genus, is the most noteworthy. 



Sundry West Colombian Collectors. — • In 1894, we learn from Hellmayr 

 (P. Z. S., 1911, p. 1084), W. F. Rosenberg visited the region east of Buena- 

 ventura working chiefly at Juntas and Call. His birds went to the late 

 Adolphe Boucard, who published a list of the Hummingbirds in ' The Hum- 

 mingbird' (Vol. V, 1895, pp. 5-7) but the bulk of the collection was never 



