Since the Spinetail there have been 43 new species described from Perú and the country now boasts the second largest avifauna in the world with slightly more than 1800 species known. Additionally there are at least three new species that are known, but not yet described! Not long after my initial trips to Perú in the early '60's, I became aware of the need to study the birds of Perú in detail and to get to as many of the unknown areas as possible, Many of these areas have been very difficult to visit, but their isolation and remoteness has paid off with amazing discoveries.

I have had the good fortune of being able to describe 13 of the new species found in Perú, and an additional 9 have been described by colleagues from the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science. Amazingly, many, if not most, of these species can be seen by birders who are willing to make some effort to visit remote areas. Some of these recent discoveries have turned out to be quite common once their habitat requirements became known. After 43 years of studying the birds of Perú my resolve to see the preparation and publication of a major, high-quality book on Perú's birds is about to come true. Thanks to the efforts of Thomas S. Schulenberg and Douglas F. Stotz of the Field Museum of Natural History, Daniel F. Lane, Lawrence B. McQueen and myself of the LSU Museum of Natural Science, as well as a talented group of 14 artists, our dream book is about to be finished. With nearly 200 color plates, excellent maps and an ecologically oriented text designed by our late friend and colleague Ted Parker, we hope we will have one of the best Neotropical guides to be produced. It is being published by Princeton University Press and it should be out in 2006!

One of my favorite places in Perú is the timberline cloudforest in the Unchog region of the department Huánuco. I will never forget my first visit there with local guide Reyes Rivera A.

On the return from a trip to get additional supplies, Reyes collected the first specimens of a little brown bird that did not have even a local name.

As it was small and brown we called it the "pardusco" (little brownish one). It turned out to represent a new genus and species of small tanager and was eventually named Nephelornis oneilli in my honor; to this day the common name is O'Neill's Pardusco!
The Unchog area also produced the Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager, Buthraupis aureodorsalis, and the Rufous-browed Hemispingus, Hemispingus rufosuperciliaris., and is also the home of a number of poorly-known species much sought by birders.

The experience of seeing these feathered wonders is now relatively easy to arrange, but camping is required. Unchog is just one tiny incredible place in the huge and amazing country called Perú!

* JOHN P. O'NEILL
Staff Research Associate, LSU Museum of Natural Science, 119 Foster hall, LSU, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803.