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



duced eucalyptus, and the existence here of a pecuHar race (0. a. ■peregrina) 

 of such a plains-loving species as Otocoris alpestris implies that the region 

 is naturally treeless. \ 



So far as we observed, every available square foot of the Savanna is 

 used for pasturage or agricultural purposes, chiefly the growing of wheat 

 and corn, the grazing area, however, prevailing. The Bogota River, as it 

 winds through the Savanna, in places widens into small pools the banks of 

 which are bordered by reeds and cat-tails. In the rainy season depressions 

 of from a few square yards to others of several hundred acres or more become 

 lagoons, and it is in these restricted localities that the resident, as well as 

 winter visitant water-birds of the Savanna are found. 



To the North American ornithologist the bird-life of the Savanna holds 

 so many familiar forms that it was difHcult for us to realize that we were 

 within 300 miles of the Equator. 



By ascending the mountains Guadalupe or Mont Serrate one may reach 

 the Paramo Zone, at an elevation of between 11,000 and 12,000 feet. Our 

 plans to visit this zone with its restricted avifauna, did not, however, 

 mature, and we touched this upper life-zone only at its lower border on the 

 higher parts of the trail between Bogota and Chipaque. , 



Bogotd to Villavicencio. — The trail from Bogota to Villavicencio and the 

 Llanos of eastern Colombia leads directly over that ridge of the Eastern 

 Andes at the western foot of which the city lies. A few squares south of 

 the Central Plaza one turns eastward and the ascent begins before the city 

 limits are reached: The country is rolling rather than precipitous, and for 

 a considerable distance the trail leads over comparatively level country. The 

 actual divide is situated at the extreme eastern edge of the ridge, some ten 

 miles from Bogota, where from the mouth of the pass, at an altitude of 

 approximately 10,700 feet, one looks down the extremely steep eastern slope 

 to the valley of Chipaque two thousand feet below. The average height of 

 that part of the ridge traversed by the trail is about 10,000 feet, and nowhere 

 does it rise higher than 10,300 until the pass is approached. In limited 

 areas well-developed Temperate Zone forest exists, but the country for the 

 greater part is covered with a bushy scrub, or with low ferns. Both to the 

 north and south cones or spurs of the ridge rise at a sharp angle to as much 

 as 2000 feet above the trail. On the slopes with a northerly exposure, timber- 

 line extended to approximately 11,000-11,500 feet. On southerly slopes it 

 was about 500 feet lower and under these conditions, frailejons, one of the 

 most characteristic paramo plants, grew abundantly almost down to the 

 level.of the trail. The pass, using this term in the broad sense to cover the 

 higher parts of the trail between Bogota and a point where the descent to 

 Chipaque begins, lies in the Temperate Zone and though it is frequently 



