FAMILY CRACIDAE 295 



Male, iris dark brown ; bare areas on side of head dull black ; 

 lower eyelid dull yellow; cere, tubercle, and base of maxilla light 

 yellow ; base of mandible dull yellow ; rest of bill neutral gray, shad- 

 ing to black at tip ; tarsus and toes neutral gray ; claws brownish 

 white. 



Female, like male, except the cere, which is dark neutral gray; 

 and the bill, which is neutral gray at base, shading to black at outer 

 end. 



Measurements. — Males (6 from Panama), wing 360-411 (377), 

 tail 309-340 (326), culmen from cere 27.2-33.4 (30.9), tarsus 121.2- 

 131.8 (124.7) mm. 



Females (7 from Panama), wing 333-370 (354), tail 304-338 

 (322), culmen from cere 24.8-30.8 (28.2), tarsus 107.1-121 (114.6) 

 mm. 



Resident, in the tropical and lower subtropical zones, in regions of 

 heavy forest; found only in unsettled sections. As of 1960, distrib- 

 uted in the more remote areas of the Caribbean slope from Costa 

 Rica to Colombia. On the Pacific slope in southeastern Veraguas, 

 south of Sona; in the forests of the western side and interior hills 

 of the Azuero Peninsula; and locally from the Cerro Azul through 

 Darien to the Colombian boundary ; recorded to 1 ,900 meters on 

 Volcan Baru, Chiriqui ; and to 1,450 meters in the mountains of 

 Darien (Cerro Mali, Cerro Tacarcuna). 



The great pavon is one of the prized game birds of the Panamanian 

 forests, formerly widely distributed, but a species that soon disap- 

 pears as settlement increases and its haunts become accessible. It 

 remains now only in remote areas. 



In the western part of the republic the species is distributed 

 through the lowland forests of the Caribbean slope, though it has 

 disappeared in the cultivated regions. Hasso von Wedel sent a female 

 to the Museum of Comparative Zoology taken near Almirante on 

 February 16, 1929 (Peters, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 71, 1931, p. 

 297), but in 1958 I heard of it only in distant inland sections in that 

 region. To the eastward, in 1952, there were still a few along the 

 Rio Indio in Colon and northern Code from Chilar inland to the 

 Rio Uracillo, but here they ranged only at a distance from the 

 scattered fincas. 



Salvin and Godman (Biol. Centr.-Amer., vol. 3, 1902, p. 273) 

 write that the curassow was noticed by Mr. Champion "on the 

 Pacific slope of the Volcan de Chiriqui, but specimens were not pre- 

 served," a report that is indefinite at best. The female collected by 

 W. W. Brown, Jr. (Bangs, Proc. New England Zool. Club, vol. 3, 



