378 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



from the linear axis through the head and body. At Juan Mina, 

 when traveUng by cayuco along quiet channels, small groups of 

 jaganas often rise explosively from behind the taller vegetation, with 

 each individual headed in a different direction, but immediately 

 all shift and with chattering calls straggle off together. 



They are most abundant in the open lowlands of the Pacific slope. 

 A few, usually, but not always, in the white-breasted immature dress, 

 wander inland along gravel bars exposed in dry season on the larger 

 rivers, and then may be encountered within the open valleys in the 

 hills. I supposed that it was such a wanderer, an adult bird in this 

 instance, that I recorded on Isla Coiba on January 21, 1956. 



Four sets of 4 eggs each and one of 3, presented to the U. S. 

 National Museum by Maj.-Gen. G. Ralph Meyer, indicate that this 

 species nests in the main during the rainy season, as these, taken at 

 the Summit Gardens, Canal Zone, from 1940 to 1942, range in date 

 from August 10 to November 26. At Juan Mina, on the Rio Chagres, 

 I recorded two broods of 4 young each, on December 14, 1955. 

 Some nest later, as Thomas Gilliard found 4 young recently hatched 

 at Barro Colorado Island March 24, 1937 (Chapman, Life in an Air 

 Castle, 1938, p. 226). And Jackson Abbott has told me of finding 

 a pair with a nest containing 4 eggs in a lily pool at the Summit 

 Gardens on February 15, 1942. General Meyer also reported newly 

 hatched young on May 17, 1941. 



The usual nest is a slight depression in a mass of floating vegeta- 

 tion. The eggs, in general, are similar to those of Jacana spinosa 

 spinosa, recorded under that species, but average slightly smaller, 

 and viewed as a group are less heavily marked. In form they vary 

 from oval to short subelliptical. The ground color is somewhat 

 brighter than deep olive-buff, marked heavily with irregular, scrawling 

 lines and occasional spots of black, that here and there are modified 

 to dull grayish brown. Measurements of 4 sets are as follows : 27.7- 

 29.7x21.0-22.3 mm. A fifth set is somewhat smaller, as indicated by 

 the following dimensions : 23.6-27.5 X 21.0-21.5 mm. 



The usual name in Panama is gallito de agua, often abbreviated to 

 gallito. In Los Santos they were called rasca tortilla, and on the 

 Rio Jaque in Darien they were known as the lagunero. 



Family HAEMATOPODIDAE : Oystercatchers ; Ostreros 



The species of this family, true shorebirds in foim, are among the 

 largest of the group. All have heavy bodies and strong feet and bills, 

 the latter long, and compressed from side to side at the tip to a 



