FAMILY ARAMroAE 337 



be immature. Apparently it is this stage that has misled some early 

 authorities who have stated that such convolutions were not present 

 in this species. 



The nests of limpkins are masses of vegetation placed on tangled 

 branches, or growths of vines. In areas of extensive marsh land they 

 are built on mats of saw grass. The 4 to 8 eggs are ovate, with a 

 slightly glossy, smooth shell, buff to olive-buff, with blotches of drab 

 and brown. 



Two of the recognized subspecies are found in Panama. 



ARAMUS GUARAUNA GUARAUNA (Linnaeus) 



Scolopax guarauna Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, vol. 1, 1766, p. 242. (Cayenne.) 



Characters. — White stripes confined to the sides of the head and 

 neck, with a few on the lower surface and rarely on the wing coverts, 

 partly concealed by darker feather ends ; darker olive-brown ; smaller. 



Measurements. — Males (5 from Panama and Colombia), wing 

 301-309 (305.2), tail 122.8-138.8 (129.1), culmen from base 104.6- 

 116.8 (111.2), tarsus 109.6-126.8 (117.2) mm. 



Females (3 from Panama and Colombia), wing 290-291 (290.3), 

 tail 122.2-129.7 (127.0), culmen from base 101.5-107.0 (104.7), 

 tarsus 106.0-114.7 (109.4) mm. 



Resident. Rare; found in the Canal Zone on the middle Rio 

 Chagres (above Juan Mina) and in Darien on the middle Rio Tuira 

 (Boca de Paya), and the lower middle Rio Chucunaque (mouth of 

 RioUcurganti). 



The first report for Panama was of a male taken by Festa at the 

 Laguna de Pita near the mouth of the Rio Tuira in August 1895 

 (Salvadori and Festa, Boll. Mus. Zool. Anat. Comp. Torino, vol. 15, 

 1900, p. 42) . At Juan Mina on the Rio Chagres on several occasions 

 Enrique van Horn described to me an ibislike bird that I was certain 

 must be a limpkin. In January 1958 he shot one for Dr. Frank 

 Hartman, who in the course of his studies prepared it as a skin 

 that he presented to the U. S. National Museum. The following 

 year I found the empty snail shells left by these birds scattered 

 over a muddy shore beneath overhanging bushes. And on January 

 28, 1958, 1 secured one for a specimen. 



Later in the same season I collected a female on February 18 

 at our camp where the Rio Paya enters the Tuira; and during the 

 following month I noted one from time to time on the Paya im- 

 mediately above its mouth. Collectors for the Gorgas Memorial 

 Laboratory took another here on April 15. On the Chucunaque one 

 was reported to me on March 21. 



