1917.] Chapman, Distribution of Bird-life in Colombia. 19 



have received more attention from exploring ornithologists than any other 

 gart of Colombia. 



They were first visited by F. Simons who, in 1878 and 1879, worked from 

 sea-level to as high as 17,000 feet, and on both northern and southern slopes. 

 His collections of 182 species formed the basis of papers by Salvin and God- 

 man in 'The Ibis' for 1879 (pp. 196-206) and 1880 (pp. 114-125, 169-178). 



Simons was followed by the well-known American collector, W. W. 

 Brown, who, in the interests of E. A. and O. Bangs, collected during the 

 years 1897-99, approximately 2500 specimens representing some 242 species. 

 A series of papers based on this collection was published by Outram Bangs 

 in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, and of the 

 New England Zoological Club. 



Before Brown had left the region Herbert Smith entered it in charge 

 of a party which planned to make a thorough study of its fauna. A seri- 

 ous illness and prolonged revolution so interfered with Smith's plans that he 

 did little work above the Subtropical Zone. His collections, numbering 

 nearly 3000 specimens representing 304 species, were purchased by the 

 American Museum of Natural History and were reported on by J. A. Allen 

 in the Bulletin of the American Museum for 1900 (pp. 117-183). Dr. 

 Allen includes in this paper references to the 84 species secured by Simons 

 and Brown but not by Smith, bringing the total number of birds known 

 from the Santa Marta region up to 388. 



Since the year 1911, M. A. Carriker, Jr., who has had prolonged experi- 

 ence in the American tropics, has been resident in the San Lorenzo moun- 

 tains of the Santa Marta group and in the adjoining country, where he has 

 made large collections of birds for the Carnegie Museum. W. E. Clyde 

 Todd has described some of the species secured, and it is to be hoped that 

 we may have a resum€ of our knowledge of the exceptionally interesting 

 bird-life of this group of mountains in which Carriker's field studies may be 

 employed to map its zones and faunas. No other part of the Andes has 

 received such long continued attention from a trained collector. 



It appears, therefore, that aside from the Santa Marta group, and 

 omitting reference to ' Bogota ' skins as of no value in an attempt to deter- 

 mine with exactness the boundaries of life-zones and faunal areas, our 

 knowledge of Colombian birds rests, in the main, on Wyatt's three months' 

 explorations in the Eastern Andes of Santander, Salmon's extensive col- 

 lections in Antioquia, the work of the Michler expedition in the lower 

 Atrato, and of Palmer on the San Juan and Pacific slope west of Buenaven- 

 tura. It is obvious then, in view of these facts and the extent and topo- 

 graphic diversity of the area to be covered, that we had before us a task of 

 some magnitude when, in November, 1910, we began our field-work in 

 Colombia. 



