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    Birds of the Paramo of Central EcuadorAuthor(s): Samuel N. RhoadsReviewed work(s):Source: The Auk, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Apr., 1912), pp. 141-149Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Ornithologists' UnionStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4071347 .

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    THE AUK:A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF

    ORNITHOLOGY.VOL. XXIX. APRIL, 1912. No. 2.

    BIRDS OF THE PARAMO OF CENTRAL ECUADOR.BY SAMUEL N. RHOADS.

    PARAMO is the name for the treeless zone of the AndeanMoun-tains which reaches from the lower border of perpetual snows tothe upperborderof the tree line. This zone correspondsn westernEcuador to the areas found between the elevations of 12,000 and14,000 feet. It is wide or narrowaccordingto the relative steep-ness of the mountain sides between these elevations. While thetransition area between the lower Paramo and the upper tree andbush line is more or less an interlocking of the two, and somestunted trees are found in sheltered gorgesfar up into the typicalParamo, there is no mistaking the region as soon as you near itslower edge, after a strenuousclimb throughthe diminishing forest.You are then in the tussock-grass country. This tussock-grass,and the numerousminorplants and shrubs which crop out amongit, feed numberlessherds and droves of cattle, horses and sheep,a chief source of revenue to the owners whose vast haciendasoften reach up, from the lofty tierra templada, five thousand feethigher into the abodes of everlasting snow.

    Until the Andean traveler reaches the Paramo he can have noright conception of the immense grandeur of the Andean chainof the Cordilleras. Before that event he is so hemmed in bynarrowinggorges,by chainupon chainof foothills, or by suspendedoceans of vapor and clouds, that he begins to say in his heart,"There are no Andes; Chimborazo s a dream and Cotopaxipure

    141

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    142 RHOADS, Birdeof the Paramoof CentralEcuador. [LApurfiction." It was with some suchfeelingas this that my companion,Mr. R. S. Lemmon and myself saw our camp outfit lashed to theback of an Indian pony in the barnyard of Hacienda Rosario onone of the few really decent Ecuadorian days of last May. Wehad come up from Quito, six miles distant, about two weeksbeforeand had here made the southernfoothills of Mount Pichincha ourhappy hunting grounds. Thanksto the kind offices of that veterannaturalist and Consul of Quito, Ludovic Soderstr6m,and to theliberality of Mrs. Espinosa, the wife of its owner, we had beenenjoying glorious .days at Rosario and were rewarded by manya choice skin of the Hummingbirds,Wood Wrens, Flycatchers,richly colored Cotingas, Tanagers and what-nots which flourishedthere. But as yet we had only caught mere glimpses of the his-toric old crater,4000 feet above us, which has stood muffledguardso many centuries, over the ancient citadel of the Incas. It wascompletely cut off from our "Casa" view by the broad shoulderof forest-coveredrocks and the gorgesabove the farm-house. Ourrambles rarely took us far enough to see around that shoulderand then only to be confrontedby the mocking vapors which everhalf reveal and half conceal the upper world of Ecuador in therainy season.

    It was the first day of May when we struck out into the woodedmountain trail above Rosario's hamlet, followed by our Indianand his sure-footed pony, and, selecting the cattle paths of thenearest quebrada,we made short-cuts for the Paramo. In abouttwo hours we began to see more daylight and some fine scenery,and at 12,000 feet, the tussock-grassbegan as it were to reachdownits finger-tips into the forbidden grounds of the rapidly dwarfingtree growths. Bushes briefly held sway among these and evenup here the brilliant hued red and black Tanagers and Violet-earand Puff-leg Hummershad ventured to fly upon the heels of thesub-arctic Finches and such Formicarian and Dendrocolapteanspecies (pardonthe technicality) as had been more specially fittedfor what we might call a grazing, as contrasted with an arboreal,life. As soon as we reach the long grass and low bushes, a sturdyFinch, Phrygiluwunicolor (D'Orb.) of bluish slate color, almostas large as our Fox Sparrow,flushes,flies ahead and dropsinto thegrass. Another, of the same size, brownish and streaked, alights

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    Vo1i9IX] RHOADS,Birdsof theParamo f Central cuador. 143upon a nearby bush. Both are shot, and as the brown one wasapparently singing, they are thought to be quite distinct, but laterexperienceshows them to be male and female. Now there crawlsup the stems of a taller tussock, in much the manner of a SeasideFinch, a sharp-billed,spiny-tailedand streaked little bird, Siptornisflammulata Jard., which looks a very hybrid in color and habitsbetween an Ammodramus, Wren, and a Bush-Tit. It belongs tothe great Wood-Hewer family, Dendrocolaptidae. These streakedSedge Creepershere took the place of their longer tailed cousinsSynallaxgis f the bushes of the tierratemplada,which had so longwearied us with their tiresome "te-cheek, te-cheek," ever sincewe had landed. They carriedthe range of this type almost up tosnowline from the upper edgeof the hot countryor "tierracaliente."A few hundredyards, and we are fairly into the Paramo, survey-ing complacently the tree tops, pastures and cultivated fieldsbelow us without obstruction, save as the fickle vapors hide themmomentarilyfrom view. Raising our eyes, the dim outline of thesnowy cone of Cotopaxi slowly focuses itself far, far away to thesouth, high above the backboneof the WesternRange. A thousandrounded, nterveningsummitsformits setting. Closeby, a familiarnote suddenly reminds us of home; a Wren cry surely. Beatingabout, we are rewarded by securing a specimen of the AndeanMarsh Wren, CistothorusbrunneicepsSalvin, which we had foundbreeding in the Juncuwbunches below Rosarioat 10,000 feet, thelower limit of its range. But we must turn our backs on trifles,and, trudgingnow amongthe maze of cattle trails that intersect thesedge, we become painfully aware of our great elevation and thedifficultyof following the steady pace of our native guide. Sud-denly, along the edge of a dry ditch, a large Snipe-like bird, Galli-nago nobilis (Sclater), flushesat our feet and disappearsover thenearest knoll. These are called "Woodcocks" by the Englishinhabitants of Quito, who esteem them fine game. They do notfrequent marshy tracts and live almost entirely in the open, dry-Paramoplains amongthe tussock-grass. In the same places, wherethe sedge growsdenseand high, the peculiar,Grouse-likeTinamous.hide. When one of these strange, short tailed birds takes wing,,giving voice to its piercing,half whistling, half shriekingsuccessionof notes, one is reminded,amid the novel confusion,of a bobtailed

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    144 RH{OADS,irdsof theParamo f Central cuador. rApukBuff Cochin Pullet suddenlytransformed nto a winged cannonball.Of courseone's first shot at such a spectacle is a clear miss and thebird seems to fly, and fly clear out of the country, as you watch itsexit.Much to our surprisethe everlasting stumptailed Ant-thrushes,Grallariamonticola(Lafr.), of the templadabush-regions,commonas far down the line as Huigra (4000 feet), have even followed usup here, into the wide open middle Paramo, to an elevation of12,500feet. The next day several of them were noted on a scantilywooded cliff, near camp, as high as 13,500 feet. This is a widerange for a birdof such limitedpowersof flight. In fact it is almostimpossible to force this humpty-dumpty, thrush-likebird to openits wings, its long, robust legs enablingit to leap and jump and runwith almost as much address as the famous long-tailed Paisanoor Road-runnerof Mexico. Strange, is it not, that such diverselyfeathered birds should have such similarhabits? Nothing can bemore tiresome than the three-cornered "Wu, weeo, weeou" orwhistled song of this constantly invisible bird. Especially doesthis apply to the feelingsof the collector,who has tried vainly fromday to day to locate and secure the singer, which sits motionlessin a low bush, or on the ground beneath, in such a way as to becompletely obscured. The notes are ventriloquial,and you mayactually walk away from it in endeavoringto get closer. Anotherbirdof widerange,whichcomesup this far, is the tiny and fantasticlittle streaked Flycatcher with its Padrewski hair, the Anairetesparulmu (Kittl.). It follows the occasional bunches of stuntedtrees on the quebradasides to 13,000 feet, wherealso a high rangingWarblerwas seen. Two other species of Sparrowswere noted inthe grass,and a dainty, buff coloredTitlark, Anthusbogoten8i8 cl.,of about the size of ours, but noticeably differentin being able tofly without the inevitable snickers of A. rube8cens. Perhaps thegrandeurand solemnity of their habitat has subdued the frivolityof this genus in the Andeanbird.OurParamo camp was located near the highest point wherefuelcould be secured,and in a pass which presentedon the east a pre-eipitous bluff of rocks leading on up directly to one of the lowerpeaks of Pichincha's summit. We had been warned against cold,and had endeavored to provide for it, but our first night was a

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    146 RHOADS, Birdsof theParamo fCentral cuador. [Aupwe got back to Quito I asked Mr. S6derstr6mto explain it all.The rushingwind he thought might be an Owlor some flyingnight-bird, possibly a "Woodcock" gyrating, or possibly "one of thoseGrouse." The Puma-like roarswere surely from an Owl, and theminor refrain the chirping, peeping notes of the innocent andtimorous Tinamous! What an anti-climax to my tragedy!Our first morningon the mountain-topdawnedgloomily enough,and it was tough workkindlinga fire and warmingup a bit. WhileLemmon fanned the smudge I visited my frozen mouse traps andwas cheered not a little by a very good catch of small rodents, anorder very poorly represented in the lower altitudes of Ecuador.Near the spring I came across a brown bird whose make up andactions remindedme of a hybridbetween a Wheat-ear and a Shore-lark,' as it ran about the banks and spray dashedrocks of the pool.It proved to be another member of that strange South Americanfamily of Dendrocolaptids. Not long after, as we rose over theridgethat separated us from the finalslope to the crater,a few morewere seen in company with a larger species, Upucerthiaexcelsior(Scl.), whose color was very similarbut whosephysique and move-ments among the sparse grass and heather reminded us of a crossbetween a Palmer's Thrasher and a Cactus Wren. Both thesebirdswere almost wholly silent, only a sort of low, troubled,warn-ing note escaping them when moresorely pressed by our pursuit.The generalabsence of song, or even of voice, among the reallyabundant bird-lifeof this sublimeregion gives one a sort of awesomefeeling as he goes popping about the slopes with a puny cane-gun.What are all these birdsdoinghere? They don't seem to be breed-ing or mating or migrating;- just living, shiftless, without anyobject in life. Not so, however, the Hummingbirds. The lowerhalf or two thirds of the Paramo is largely destitute of Hummersat this time of year, except as one may be seen to dart swiftlyacross in its journey to a distant peak. As one nears the snowline, however, and the top of Pichincha peers out at intervalsfrom among the clouds, only 1000 feet above him, the Hill-Stars,OreotrochiluwichinchaBourc., as they are called by Gould, sud-denly become abundant. Flowers are far from common in the

    I Its Dipper-like habits are alluded to in the generic name. It is Cinclodesfuacus albidiventris Scl.

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    1912 J RHOADS, Bird8of theParamoof CentralEcwador. 147Paramo,but, as we near the frost line and the tussock grassdwarfsand disappears, a curious, straggling, prickly, evergreen shrub,the Chuquiraga n8ignis of Humboldt, is found growing in beltsand patches and attaining a stature of six or eight feet. It haserect, thistle-shapedflowers of a brownishyellow hue and on thesethe Pichincha EIll-Stars seemed almost solely to feed. Awayfromthese stony wastes, on the very vergeof desolation, they neverwander far, though their strength and rapidity of flight is trulywonderfuland they seem to be the most restlessof a restlessfamily.We securedseveralspecimensand were disappointedto find nearlyevery one in shabby, moulting plumage. The female Hill-Starsare one of the plainest of their sex in the family, a sort of frostygray with only a faint tinge of the dorsal greenwhich characterizesnearly all of the Hummingbirds. The males are truly beautiful,their pure white underpartsand white, median tail feathers con-trasting strongly with the dark wings and purple head and outertail. The tail is large and used with fine effect in their curvets andairy gambols over the boulder-strewnarenal, down into the que-bradasand up into the black, basaltic cliffsthat overtop the crater.Gould asserts this species is distinct from the Hill-Star, Oreo-trochiluechimborazo,which inhabits a like region on Mt. Chimbo-razo, though that mountain is only 40 miles distant and could bereachedby these wonderfulaeronauts in as many minutes Whatinvisible barrierscan they be which have set the bounds of such abird's wanderings? The close resemblance of the two species toeach other and to some ancestral type is unmistakable. We areled to think that ancestormust have lived when the lowercountry,now separatingthese two mountains, was at an average elevationof 13,500feet, or rather so elevated that the floralconditions thenand there obtaining favored the life of this Hummer. As thatregion became depressed, the Hummers of the two localities nat-urally advancedupwardalong the mountainslopeswith the chang-ing flora,and eventually becameseparatedby a lower floralregion,unsuited to their needs. After that, local differentiationbecamenot only possible but probable, but it must have covered a periodof many thousands of years. In short, just as many an islandof the Pacific,due to depression,has been cut off fromland affinitiesit once shared with neighboringislands, resulting in the strangest

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    Auk148 RHOADS, irdsof theParamo f Central cuador. [A prlisolation and provincialismof certain species;of birds, so have theneighboring peaks of the Andes, rising above the semi-tropicalocean of the "Templada," become the refuge of slowly vanishinggroups of birds whose very existence depends on an equatorialenvironment that is elevated about 13,000feet above the sea.There are other species of Hummingbirdswhich venture intothe Paramoand even rangeover the top of Pichincha,but the Hill-Stars outnumber and outgeneral them.ten to one. One of theseis a dark Thorn-bill,Ramphomicron tanleyi Bourc.,which feedsin a dainty, topsy-turvy fashionon the alpinecrocusesand dwarfedheaths, which, near the snow line, have absolutely no stems butjust bloom at the surface of the sand and ash. It is "heels-over-head"with these Hummersand they can take the turnwith wonder-ful grace, seemingto be walkingfromflowerto flower on their bills.Once in the hand, this species displays amazing colors, a beard ofruby fire on the lower throat; the chin metallic green; the long,broad and emarginate tail of a peacock blue! Gouldsays it is onlyfound within the crater of Pichincha. We found it only outside,along a narrow gorge, 500 feet below the crater's top. Just asthe snow is reached, the sandy crater-slopes are strewn withboulders, and seated on these we here find for the first time abeautiful grayish Flycatcher, Muscisaxicola alpina Jard., darkabove, nearly white beneath, the size of our Phoebe,darting lan-guidly about after the insects which have daredthis thin and frigidatmosphere. Not a sound save a weak and plaintive call escapesthem and theirpresenceseems to heightenthe mystery of a hauntedland. Here, too, is the very exclusivehaunt of the whistling, loud-calling "Partridge" I of the arenal,- the Crater Partridge it maywell be termed, a brownish, sand-coloredbird of swift, nervousflight and about the size of a Pigeon.Hawks are not rare; a black fellow with red legs, the size of ourSharp-shin,often darting around the quebradasafter an unwarybird or mouse. The handsome Vulturine Hawk, Ibyeter caruncu-latus (Des Murs.), looking and behaving much as our TexanCaracara,was seen about camp in pairs and one was shot by Mr.Lemmon out of the driving mists on the very crater brink of Pi-

    1 Not a Partridge at all, but a seed-eating Plover-snipe, belonging to the Charad-riiformes; Attagis chimborazensis Scl.

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    v191 "2Xl RHOADS,Birds of theParamoof CentralEcuador. 149chincha. The ubiquitous SparrowHawk also climbs these slopes,and, for all one can see, it is exactly the same as ours of the States.High over all careened the white ruffed Condors. As many asfive could be seen at one time, circlingthe summit or setting theircoursedirectly towardand over us when our shooting becamemostnoisy. Their appearance in flight resembled closely that of theCaliforniaVulture, there being more of the Eagle in it than is seenin the gyrations of our Turkey Vulture. No flapping was noted,except a few strokes when shot at, as one flew directly over, about250 feet above our heads. The flight is very swift, not often incircles but from peak to peak or down over the Paramo, to whichregion they seem to mostly confine themselves. We never sawthem at Rosario, though they are said by Mr. Soderstr6mto breedas low in the caiionsas 8,500 feet. Despite their white secondariesand collar,Condorsrarelylook whitish in flight, the back generallybeing above the line of vision. I was greatly disappointedin theapparently small -size of these birds from an open-air viewpoint.They actually looked no larger,in such magnificentsurroundings,than ourown poorBuzzards. However,even mountains look smallfrom the Paramoand-whenone of the great birds bore down uponme, at the report of my gun, and came rushing along about 150feet overhead, with the tempest in his teeth and his widely dis-tended primariescutting the airwith a soundlike a hundredsabres,I was quite impressed. The glancing eye and rapidly turninghead, as he made a few circles above me, showed that he also waslooking for game, but evidently my anatomy was not to his fancyand he passed grandly on.

    HADDONFIELD, N. J.Feb. 9th, 1912.