296 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



1902, p. 21), on April 20, 1901, labeled "Boquete, 5000 feet," probably 

 was taken on the Caribbean slope to the north and at a lower eleva- 

 tion. In Chiriqui a few range the slopes of Volcan Baru back of 

 El Volcan. 



Karl Curtis told me that years ago he shot them in the wooded 

 country then found in western Veraguas between the Rio Vira and 

 the Rio Tabasara. In June 1953 I recorded a few near the Rio San 

 Pablo at Guarumal and La Isleta in southern Veraguas. Aldrich 

 (Scient. Publ. Cleveland Mus., vol. 7, 1937, pp. 51-53) shot a pair 

 at about 600 meters elevation on Cerro Viejo, on the western side 

 of the Azuero Peninsula, but saw no others. These are the only 

 records for Veraguas, and are the only definite reports of the bird for 

 the Pacific slope west of the Canal Zone. 



Farther east the curassow in early days was widespread, and in 

 uninhabited regions it still is fairly common. A hundred and more 

 years ago McLeannan sent specimens taken near the railroad on the 

 Atlantic side to the Smithsonian and to Salvin. The last recorded 

 in the Canal Zone area were on Barro Colorado Island in 1926. 

 Chapman (Life in an Air Castle, 1938, p. 224) wrote of them 

 regretfully "rare ; I have seen only a feather." In eastern Colon 

 Goldman collected one on Cerro Bruja back of Portobelo, June 6, 

 1911. 



In the Comarca de San Bias (as of 1957) curassows ranged 

 from Mandinga eastward. And during my work near Chepo in 1949 

 they were still present in the lower forests near the Rio Mamoni and 

 on Cerro Carbunco, In 1950 they were fairly common along the Rio 

 Chiman and were common in the great forests of the southern 

 slopes of the Serrania de Maje. Through Darien they have disap- 

 peared near the settlements, and where Indians live along the rivers, 

 but persist in wilder lands where there are no inhabitants. Festa 

 in 1895 (Salvadori and Festa, Boll. Mus. Zool, Anat. Comp. Univ. 

 Torino, vol. 14, no. 339, 1899, pp. 9-10; and 1909, p. 22) found 

 them near the Rio Lara and the Rio Cianati, above the Gulf of San 

 Miguel, but Barbour in 1922 (Bangs and Barbour, Bull. Mus. Comp. 

 Zool., vol. 65, 1922, p. 195) noted them as very rare in the Sambu 

 region. He prepared one specimen at Jesucito. In 1959 they were 

 still common on the middle Tuira and near the Chucunaque, and I 

 saw them in 1961 on the slopes of Cerro Pirre. In 1963 they were 

 common inland from Armila in the eastern San Bias. Obviously 

 the species is one that is steadily on the road to disappearance. 



Usually curassows range in pairs that, following the nesting season, 

 may be accompanied by grown young for a brief period. While 



