4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



The Spanish names in many instances offer difficulty. Where the 

 species are known to Panamanian countrymen there is no complica- 

 tion, but there are scores of kinds of birds that are not so recognized. 

 With those that range widely in the American Tropics often there 

 are appropriate names available from other Spanish-speaking coun- 

 tries, and these I have taken wherever practicable. Occasionally 

 with birds of obscure habit it has been necessary to propose names 

 both in English and in Spanish, with care that they may be 

 appropriate. 



The scientific names follow the International Code of Zoological 

 Nomenclature of 1961 (with certain reservations and some mis- 

 giving). 



Outlines of range and important records are based on an extended 

 survey of literature and of specimens in museums, in addition to 

 information available from my own work in the field. To avoid 

 misunderstanding it should be explained that many of the names of 

 localities on skins collected by J. H. Batty in Panama at the beginning 

 of this century are not valid. This is particularly true of skins 

 labeled from islands off the coast of Chiriqui. It is certain that 

 Batty visited Isla Coiba, but a considerable part of the specimens 

 that he labeled as from this island came from the mainland, and data 

 attributing numerous skins to other islands in the area are without 

 question fictitious. (See Wetmore, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 134, 

 no. 9, 1957, pp. 6-8.) 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



Throughout my personal field work in the Republic I have had close 

 association with the Museo Nacional of Panama, through its director. 

 Dr. Alejandro Mendez Pereira, and with the staff of the Gorgas Me- 

 morial Laboratory, especially with its former directors, the late Dr. 

 Herbert Clark and his successor. Dr. Carl Johnson, and with Dr. 

 Pedro Galindo, entomologist. This collaboration has continued under 

 Dr. Martin Young, who became the head of the Laboratory in 1964. 

 During my studies on the avifauna of the Republic of Panama I 

 have had the friendly cooperation of Dr. Eugene Eisenmann, who 

 has placed at my disposal many records of occurrence and other data 

 from his personal notes, in addition to the information in his numerous 

 publications. All have been of major assistance. 



The illustrations, presented to show the form in characteristic 

 species in each family, are from the skilful hand of Walter A. Weber. 



