126 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



The most western record on the mainland is for the head of 

 Montijo Bay where Aldrich (Scient. Publ. Cleveland Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 vol. 7, 1937, pp. 36-37) found them common in 1932. There is a 

 specimen from Isla Coiba in the British Museum collected on the St. 

 George Expedition in 1924 ; and I recorded them there in fair num- 

 ber in 1956. There were numbers near the coast in the Province of 

 Herrera in 1948, and several on the mudflats at Puerto Salado, below 

 Aguadulce, Code, Jan. 25, 1963. Other recent records are from 

 Farfan Beach, Canal Zone (specimen September 28, 1953), and of 

 one seen near Panama City (J. M. Abbott, March 7, 1942). Hallinan 

 (Auk, 1924, p. 307) shot one on Isla Taboguilla December 5, 1915. I 

 have seen them regularly in the marshes near the La Jagua Hunting 

 Club, and in 1950 found them common near Chiman, where they 

 ranged inland on the Rio Chiman to the Rio Curutu. Several were 

 seen at Maje, Panama in 1950, and others near El Real, Darien in 

 1964. The first formal record for Panama is that of 3 on the Rio 

 Sabana, Darien, reported by Salvadori and Festa (Boll. Mus. Zool. 

 Anat. Comp. Univ. Torino, vol. 14, no. 339, 1899, pp. 2, 12) . 



White ibises are found in tidal ponds in mangroves, and also 

 around cienagas and shallow waters on the flats, but do not go far 

 inland. They sleep in the coastal swamps, and may be seen in small 

 flocks flying to and from such roosts in morning and evening. The 

 immature birds sometimes allow close approach, but adults are more 

 wary. 



On June 7, 1941, Maj. Gen. G. Ralph Meyer found a colony on 

 Isla Changame at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal and took 

 6 sets of 2 eggs each, which are now in the National Museum. The 

 nests were shallow platforms, 175 to 200 mm. in diameter, made 

 of twigs and weed stems, with some leaves in the lining, placed on 

 the tops of cactus and stunted trees. The eggs are subelliptical, dull 

 white to huffy white, marked with chocolate to cinnamon-brown, 

 changing to lilac where the pigment is overlaid by a deposit of shell. 

 Some are heavily blotched, mainly around the larger end, others are 

 spotted finely throughout. These 12 eggs range in length from 52.1 

 to 61.0 mm., and in width from 35.5 to 38,8 mm., with the average 

 56.7x37.3 mm. 



THERISTICUS CAUDATUS CAUDATUS (Boddaert): White-throated Ibis; 



Bandurria Comtln 



Scolopax caudatus Boddaert, Tabl. PI. Enl., 1783, p. 57. (Cayenne.) 



An ibis with heavy body and short legs ; a prominent white patch 

 in the wing, that otherwise is dark in color. 



