1918

A WORD TO SUBSCRIBERS Beginning with this issue of THE OOLOGIST, this magazine will hereafter be issued on the first day of each month and all advertisements should reach us at Lacon, Illinois, not later than the 15th day of the month preceding the month of publication in order to insure insertions in the following month.

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From and after Januarl 1st, 1918, no receipts for subscriptions will be mailed; subscriptions will be kept track of by number appearing on the subscription card in the office of THE OOLOGIST and a like number appearing on the envelope in which THE OOLOGIST is mailed. All subscribers are notified to look carefully at the number on the envelope in which they receive THE OOLOGIST as the numbers will be advanced automatically as subscriptions are received, and if any error is noted in the number on the envelope, our office should be notified at once. Each subscriber will be entitled to one free insertion of an advertisement not exceeding twenty-five words. No coupons will be mailed evidencing this fact, but subscribers who send in such advertisements at any time during the year for which their subscription is paid, the same will be inserted and that fact noted on the index card.

All subscriptions expiring more than one year prior to January 1st, 1918, and which are evidenced by any number below 354 are dropped from our books with this issue as the government regulations prohibit the mailing of the magazine to subscribers who are more than one year in ar

rears.

Nearly all publications are advancing their subscription rate owing to the advance in the cost of material, labor, etc., involved in the production.

THE OOLOGIST will not do this doing the present year, but in order to make both ends meet, we again appeal to each bird enthusiast who is interested in THE OOLOGIST and its future to assist us in enlarging its subscription list. A large number of our subscribers are not only subscribing for their own copy, but are sending a copy of THE OOLOGIST for 1918 to some friend.

We now desire to thank those who have so kindly given us this assistance in the past.

R. M. BARNES.

Bird Collecting In Eastern Colombia
Paul G. Howes
PART VII

March 11th. This morning we were up and out at 5:30. I went up a small river about two miles from the town. Birds proved to be abundant and in a few hours I had a good bag. This little river, which apparently has no name, winds in and out between beautifully grown sandy banks. I spent the entire morning wading in the cooling water and shooting from the center of the stream. I managed to get badly bitten by red ants when I foolishly sat down upon the ground to rest. These vile little insects got inside my clothes and for a time nearly drove me crazy as their bite and sting combined causes a rash much like that of nettle.

Later, while hunting in heavy underbrush for a species of Manacus that I had felled, a large scaley head suddenly appeared in the mouth of a burrow directly under my nose. Remaining motionless for a minute, my blood ran cold at the sound of fierce hissing, for we were now in the country of big snakes. In a panic I reached for my knife, having nothing but a 32 cartridge and No. 12 shot in my gun, and as I did so the creature dart

ed from its hole. For a second I felt all gone inside but this was only momentary, for the beast proved to be nothing but an Armadillo, more frightened than I! Much relieved I found my Manacus and retreated, but since that time it has occcured to me what a wonderful protection for this animal lies in its triangular, scaled head and its ability to hiss like a large snake.

After getting all the birds I could handle during the day, I turned my attention to the interesting wasps of the region. I found two large bellshaped nests of paper and also a colony of tiny social bees that build a tubular mud entrance to their nest which consists of a hole in a tree or old stump.

There were many beautiful flowers growing along the river banks, one in particular, a huge vermillion ball with spine-like stemens, resembling a large pin cushion stuck full of yellow-headed hat pins. It was growing parasitically some ten feet up in the branches of a tree.

I saw several Eastern U. S. birds, chiefly warblers together with one or two Rose-breasted grosbeaks, already in full summer plumage.

On the way home I caught sight of a fine big jaguar and Ring reported an ocelot and brought in a capauchin monkey and several specimens of Hoatzins. Spent the afternoon skinning and preparing our birds and all turned in early.

March 12th. This morning I went out about six, taking a southerly direction instead of going east as yesterday. First I followed a small creek for an hour, taking nothing except one Phathornis humming bird. From here I went through a comparatively level open bit of land, bordered by small growth, and inhabited by a species of Toucan, new to the pedition, having a white eye and red

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rump, and closely related to the species taken in the Magdalena valley. A mile further on I struck a heavy tropical forest with tangled undergrowth so thick that my aux shells would not take affect. On the way back towards the town, an open space bordered by huge trees, yielded one of the largest species of jay that I have ever seen, together with a fine pair of green Jacamas, a bucko, Mourning warbler and a fine little male Picumnus, a tiny woodpecker. The morning was now well along, so I retraced my steps to our hut to skin my specimens.

About five in the afternoon, Cherrie and I went out from the town to the river Parado, a fine little strem com. ing down from the mountains. We walked up for about a quarter of a mile and here we found a little pool just big enough to hold us both. We were soon sitting up to our necks in the fine cold mountain water with a waterfall washing our backs. The bottom of the pool was lined with clean white pebbles. Here we had our first real South American bath and believe me, we needed it! We stayed in about half an hour with a current in back just strong enough to lean against. When we returned to the town, the other fellows had just finished skinning. They were hot and tired, and the sight of Cherrie and me fresh from that bath made a very envious bunch of them.

After a rough-house dinner, it was decided that Chapman and I should leave the next day for Buenavista, just up the hills behind the town. We will remain there until the 16th, when the others will join us and all will return to Bogota to get supplies and then set out in another direction.

Our house here has a sign over the door which reads "Twentieth Century." It is however, not as up to