FAMILY ARDEIDAE 83 



Resident. In the lower Rio Tuira drainage in Darien ; casual (two 

 sight records) near La Jagua, eastern Panama. 



It is possible that Jewel in his account of the great blue heron in 

 Panama (Auk, 1913, p. 424) examined a bird of this species when he 

 said "on June 9, 1912, a heron was shot on the Gatun River which is 

 clearly another species or at least another form xxx a resident heron 

 in Panama xxx slightly smaller without any rufous on the thighs." 

 As this bird is not listed in the catalog of the Jewel collection in the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences it apparently was not preserved. 



The first definite record for the republic (Wetmore, Auk, 1951, 

 p. 525) is of a bird that I saw March 30, 1949, at the Cienaga Santo 

 Domingo, in the savannas east of Pacora, Province of Panama. It 

 stood a short distance beyond gun range on an open flat, in company 

 with a dozen great blue herons, some common egrets, and several 

 wood ibises. I watched it for 15 minutes until a distant gunshot 

 startled the group into flight. In February and March 1959 and in 

 January 1964 I found the Cocoi heron so common on the lower tribu- 

 taries of the main Rio Tuira as to indicate a breeding colony some- 

 where in the great wooded swamps back of the coast, particularly 

 since these birds remained in March after the great blue herons, found 

 with them earlier, had gone in northward migration. A few ranged 

 back along the Rio Tuira to the Rio Paya, where I secured an adult 

 male March 12, 1959. I recorded them also along the Rio Chucunaque 

 to the region between the Tuquesa and Ucurganti rivers. 



As another casual record, on March 27, 1960, I found an adult at 

 the edge of a small channel below the La Jagua Hunting Club and 

 watched it several minutes at a distance of not more than 50 meters. 

 Finally it flew and then began to call, a harsh note that resembled that 

 of the great blue heron but somewhat higher in tone. 



The male collected on March 12 on the Rio Tuira is small, as indi- 

 cated by the following measurements: Wing 424, tail 161, culmen 

 from base 129, tarsus 169 mm. 



BUTORIDES VIRESCENS (Linnaeus): Green Heron; Martinete 



A small, dark-colored heron, with the sides of the neck brown. 



Description. — 380 to 560 mm. long. Adult, crown and crest black, 

 washed with green ; neck chestnut-brown, white in front ; above dark 

 greenish, with narrow white edgings in the wings ; underparts gray. 



Immature, browner, streaked below. 



Green herons as a group are found world-wide in warm temperate 



