20 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXXVI, 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM'S EXPEDITIONS IN COLOMBIA. 



In planning our field-work in Colombia we experienced much difficulty 

 in securing definite information concerning means of transportation, routes, 

 and the character of the country we proposed to visit. 



Aside from the use of the railways from Buenaventura to Caldas and 

 Puerto Colombia to Barranquilla, and La Dorada to Honda, and of 

 steamers and launches on the San Juan, Cauca, and Magdalena rivers, 

 our work in Colombia has of necessity been conducted solely with the aid 

 of pack animals and porters. Such limited transportation facilities in a 

 country where topography and climate further add to the difficulties of 

 travel, imply a lack of intercommunication between regions which, although 

 contiguous, are separated by high mountain ranges with but few passes. 



We should not therefore, have been surprised often to find it impossible 

 to learn from the inhabitants of one district even the most salient features 

 of what to us seemed comparatively nearby districts. 



For this reason it has seemed to me to be desirable to publish at some 

 length the itinerary of each of our eight expeditions in Colombia with a 

 general description of the routes followed and stations at which collections 

 were made. This information is presented not only for its bearing in the 

 present connection, but as a contribution to Colombian geography. 



Miller and Richardson in the Andes west of Popayan, Miller and Allen 

 in the Paramo of Santa Isabel and in crossing from Cartago to Novita and 

 Popayan to San Agustin; Miller in the Caqueta region and with Boyle on 

 the Paramillo, have visited regions about which little or nothing has been 

 published; while the narrative of those expeditions which followed more 

 beaten trails, may have a practical value to those who, for whatever pur- 

 pose, follow in our footsteps. 



That our explorations may be extended to advantage, is beyond ques- 

 tion, for there still exist large areas in Colombia of which we know but little 

 or nothing. The bird-life of Amazonian Colombia, probably richer than 

 that of any other part of the republic, is known to us only through the 

 results of Miller's one month's collecting in the Caqueta region; in the 

 Llanos proper there has been no scientific collecting; the character of the 

 bird-life of the northern end of the Eastern Andes we know only by inference; 

 no collections have been made in the Goajira Peninsula, and but few speci- 

 mens have been recorded from the arid coastal region west of the Magda- 

 lena. The great Magdalena forests are still but imperfectly explored; 

 the Central Andes south of Antioquia have been visited only by our expe- 

 ditions; even the ornis of the Cauca Valley, as elsewhere stated, is not 



