112 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



In February 1964 two were collected among several seen along 

 the head of the Rio Pucro at about 1,300 meters elevation on the 

 slopes of Cerro Tacarcuna. One of these had the stomach filled with 

 the small armored catfish (family Loricariidae), abundant in these 

 streams, of the kind called wakupu by the Cuna Indians, who prize 

 them as food. The other had eaten a large aquatic waterbug. I saw 

 an immature individual at about 600 meters elevation on the Rio 

 Tacarcuna on March 14. 



I have found no account of the nest and eggs of this species. 



Identification of the first two specimens mentioned led to critical 

 examination of the tiger-bitterns in the American Museum of Nat- 

 tural History and the Museum of Comparative Zoology, with dis- 

 covery of other skins that had been identified as T. I. lineatum, 

 including one from Tacarcuna, Darien, taken March 28, 1915, in 

 the collection first named. Of the others, in Cambridge, one taken 

 March 11, 1936, comes from the old Salamanca hydrographic station, 

 now abandoned, near the upper end of Madden Lake. Those taken 

 by Wedel at Puerto Obaldia and Ranchon, San Bias, had been re- 

 corded erroneously by Griscom (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 72, 

 1932, p. 311) as T. lineatum. It is evident that T. salmoni ranges 

 locally through the more humid forest areas of the republic. 



Birds of this species from southeastern Peru and western Bolivia 

 have been separated by Sztolcman as the race hrevirostre on the 

 basis of shorter bill. This, however, needs further consideration 

 since bill measurements in those I have examined, including several 

 others from Colombia and Venezuela in addition to those cited 

 above, cover the sizes alleged to mark the race that it is proposed to 

 recognize, 



BOTAURUS LENTIGINOSUS (Rackett): American Bittern; Avetoro Pasajero 



Ardea lentiginosa Rackett, in Pulteney, Cat. Birds, Shells, and Plants Dorset- 

 shire, ed. 2, May 1813, p. 14. (Parish of Piddletown, Dorsetshire, England.) 



A heron of medium size, mainly buffy brown, with a prominent 

 black stripe on the side of the upper neck at the base of the head. 



Description. — Length 560 to 660 mm. Mixed buff and brown above, 

 with back and wings finely spotted and lined with blackish; throat 

 white, with a black patch on either side at the base of the neck; 

 below buff streaked with yellowish brown. 



Accidental, as a migrant from the north. One record for the 

 Canal Zone. 



The only report of this North American species is that of a bird 

 that McLeannan secured when he was stationed at Lion Hill (Law- 



