VENTURA BARNES, JR. 
CURATOR, PHELPS ORNITHOLOGICAL COLLECTION 
CARACAS VENEZUELA. 
Caracas, Venezuela’* May 3rd. ,1940* j 
Dr,Alexander Wetmore, Assitant Secretary, I 
Smithonian Institution, I 
United States National Museum, S 
Washington, D.C. | 
My dear Dr .Wetmore: I 
I returned just a few days ago from our last expedition to the 1 
Perija Mountain range, the Penninsula of Goagira, and the Sierra de San Luis, south 3 
of Coro. I was delighted also of having here your last letter of March 28th. which I 
I am answering with the greatest pleasure. I am sorry to tell you that I have not 3 
receive the one dated on January 8th. hut hope will he somewhere and will reach me 3 
soon. 
I am glad to hear that you liked my short paper about the collections! 
made in Imatacaand the lower Orinoco, I regret that the printing work is not so good I 
and so many erros were made by that people. j 
Sure you wrote me about the Eighth American Congress that meets in j 
Washington from May 10 to May 18. Mr.Phelps left early this morning to catch the | 
boat at La Guayra as he is a little bit late for the Cdmgress, you will see him over I 
there. His dely was due to the fact that he wanted to take some bird skins along with 
him for further study at the American and National Museums. 
In regard to our field work in Goagira Penninsula I am glad to tell 
you that we only stayed one week in the strip of land which pertain to Venezuela but 
that we travelled up to Castillete on the extreme northeastern section to the boundary 
limit of Colombia and Venezuela. We collected at Paraguaipoa, Cojoro, and Castillete 
and in between this places while travelling in our truck. The bird fauna is very in¬ 
teresting showing some similarities with that I observed and collected in Paraguana 
Penninsula as well as in the more arid coast region in the vicinity of Coro and 
Cumarebo, All this large strip of arid coast land forms the Caribbean Fauna establi¬ 
shed by Dr.Chapman in his work of Colombia* We did not cross the border line with 
Colombia except in some places where the sandy road criss cross the boundary line but 
did not collect any birds in Colombian territory. Mr .Phelps is only interested in 
Venezuelan birds as you now therefore he did not care to have strangers in his collec¬ 
tion. My opinion is that the Goagira need further studies and more intense collection 
especially on the Colombian side although some collecting have been done in the neigh¬ 
borhood of Rio Haeha on Colombian land. 
I wish I could spare some more weeks in the Goagira as I am sure 
some novelties will be shown from a more intense collecting. We think that we collec- ; 
ted a new bird, Dendroica petechia subsp. as this birds is entirely different from ' 
the one I collected at Paraguana two years ago. Mr.Phelps is taking them along with 
him for further study as description in case it will be a new race of petechia . 
Also, we finished many series of some birds which we needed for comjbarison and among ; 
them were Hypnelus ruficollis subsp. and Speotyto cunicularia arubensis . j 
We met the Goagiro Indians who inhabit most parts of the Goagira 
and they all were very nice with us and helped us in many ways. I observed they are 
entirely different from those met at the Sierra de Perija and even different to 
the Indians of the lower Orinoco. They are good people having large quantities of 
cattle, especially horses, goats and sheep. I did not know sheep will grow well 
enough in such"an•arid.and tropical region. 
