374 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



Changuinola and there often come to rain pools on the golf links. On 

 the Pacific slope, in eastern Chiriqui, they mingle with the black- 

 plumaged wattled jaqana from Las Lajas and Remedios to the Rio 

 Tabasara, and in lesser number in Veraguas to the Rio Bubi west of 

 El Zapatillo, an overlap in range of between 40 and 50 kilometers. 

 The two to date have not been found associated on the Caribbean side. 



The northern jacana in haunt, habits, and notes is the counterpart 

 of the other species found throughout most of the Republic. 



While I have not seen eggs from Panama, those in a series in the 

 U. S. National Museum from Mexico and Cuba are slightly larger 

 than those of the black form from the Canal Zone, the range in 15 

 specimens being 29.3-31.2x21.6-24.0 mm. They are also somewhat 

 more heavily marked. 



With the large series of these birds now available it is found that 

 populations of the Greater Antilles, Mexico (except for a limited 

 area in the northwest), and southern Central America, formerly re- 

 garded as 3 distinct geographic races, are to be merged in one as 

 Jacana spinosa spinasa. Specimens from Sinaloa to northern Colima, 

 Mexico, are slightly smaller, so that they are separated as Jacana 

 spinosa lozvei van Rossem. The northern group, the species Jacana 

 spinosa (Linnaeus), has a well-marked central division between the 

 two lateral broader sections in the frontal plate, so that the free up- 

 per margin is clearly and definitely three-lobed. The base of the bill 

 is pale bluish or greenish white, and the frontal plate is bright yellow 

 to orange yellow. Birds of the southern species, Jacana jacana (Lin- 

 naeus), found from western Panama southward, have only two di- 

 visions in the upper margin of the frontal plate and also possess a 

 well-developed lappet on either side of the gape. The frontal plate 

 and the lappet are dark red in color. It should be noted that the lap- 

 pet is absent in younger juvenile individuals but begins to grow as 

 the frontal plate develops, so that it is present before the bird molts 

 into adult dress. As stated, the ranges meet in western Panama where 

 the two species now are found together over a space of about 50 

 kilometers. My own observations in this area of overlap confirm the 

 early reports of Griscom (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 78, 1935, p. 

 305) who found the two together in the same pools near Remedios, 

 in eastern Chiriqui, "without producing intermediates." However, I 

 have examined several specimens in the British Museum, collected by 

 Arce in 1869, labeled Calobre, in eastern Veraguas, that appear to 



