1917.] Chapman, Distribution, of Bird-life in Colombia. 27 



by a few Capybaras on the banks, and red Howling Monkeys' in the 

 bamboos. 



Fresnado, the port of Cartago, like Juanchito, the port of Cali, is distant 

 three miles from the town it serves. The intervening country, again like 

 that at Cali, is a dry, open plain or potrero. Here small, scattered acacias 

 are the characteristic trees, and Mockingbirds, Vermilion and Tyrant Fly- 

 catchers {Tyranmus melancholichus) , Anis, Lapwings and Milvago Hawks 

 the characteristic birds. 



At Cartago, thanks to the assistance of Senor Jesus Velez, we secured 

 riding and pack animals without delay and began our journey across the 

 Quindio the day of our arrival. 



Cartago to Giradot. — The trail which crosses the Central Andes over 

 the Quindio Pass has been travelled for centuries. Up to the lower limits 

 of the Temperate Zone (about 9000 ft.) the country through which it passes 

 is more or less settled and under cultivation, and its primitive character is 

 therefore not always obvious to one en route. However, Dr. Allen's descrip- 

 tion of the stations at which he and Miller subsequently collected, supply 

 the essential details, and I give here only the generalized view which one 

 may gain from the saddle. 



For the first seven or eight miles, the trail, after leaving Cartago, passes 

 over the low ridge which lies between Cartago and Piedra Moler on the 

 Vieja River, one hundred feet above Cartago. The country is rather arid, 

 and more or less covered with a scrubby growth. From the summit of the 

 ridge a view is had of a well wooded valley which opens into the Cauca 

 Valley, now much constricted and set with hills which mark its termina- 

 tion as a valley and passage into the more mountainous country north of 

 Cartago. 



After crossing the Vieja the trail, for the succeeding ten or twelve miles, 

 passes through a comparatively level depression known as El Hoyo de 

 Quindio. It is bordered by a bushy scrub and some first-growth, with much 

 fine bamboo, which reaches its upper limit at about 5500 feet. There is 

 no outlook until, at the end of about ten miles, the trail gradually ascends 

 and takes to the ridges. The depression through which we have passed 

 is now seen behind us with the Western Andes in the distance, and on each 

 side well-wooded valleys open. A few miles further the picturesque town 

 of Finlandia (6400 ft.) is seen and beyond it we had our first view of the 

 main Central Andes with the snow-fields of Santa Isabel. 



Finlandia was reached at 4 P. M. after eight hours' travel by mule 

 from Piedra Moler, a distance of about twenty-five miles with an ascent, 

 always gradual, of about three thousand feet. We were still in the foothills, 

 which, in softly rounded, green, grassy billows, rolled downward toward 



