With the exception of the tracts cleared for cultivation, and the bare sandstone summits, the country is covered with light forest. There is practically no moss, but a dense undergrowth of climbing bamboo and a few palms and ferns. As a whole, the vegetation does not greatly resemble that of the true subtropic or cloud-forest zone, and as this was its upper limit and three thousand and five hundred feet above sea-level, it should have been of the subtropic type, if any exists in the region. We may, therefore, safely conclude that this marks the ending of the zone of cloud forest existing on the eastern slope of the Andes during practically their entire course north of this point. Birds were not very common, and of comparatively few species; but the fauna is entirely different from that of the uplands. The brilliant little tanagers (_Calliste_), so typical of the mountain forest, are conspicuously absent. There were, however, several kinds of warblers, and wrens, parrots, and other birds properly belonging to such a region. A black-and-white guan (_Pipile_) was really plentiful, and while the distribution of the species is very great, I had always considered it a rare bird. It is about twenty-eight inches long, and of a bronzy-black color. The top of the head and a large blotch on the wings are white; the naked cheeks and a long throat-caruncle are of a delicate shade of grayish blue. The bird’s rasping cry may be heard morning and evening, as it takes wing and alternately soars and flaps from one tree to another, or skims over the top of the forest. Adult birds weigh up to four pounds and are killed for food on every possible occasion, as the flesh is very good. The individuals I examined had been feeding on green leaves swallowed whole. Jays in flocks followed us about in the forest and kept up a constant screaming and scolding. It was impossible to escape them without using drastic measures. They were a great nuisance, as their cries frightened other forms of wild life away; both the black-fronted blue and the green-and-yellow species mingled in the same flocks. [Illustration: Vermejo on the Santa Cruz trail.]