FAMILY SCOLOPACIDAE 407 



At rest, or as they walk slowly about, they appear gray and white, but 

 as they fly the extensive areas of white in the otherwise black wings, 

 form a striking pattern that serves to identify the species without 

 mistake. Often they give their ringing calls as they take wing. In 

 addition to the numbers usually present at Panama Vie jo I have 

 found them especially common around the Gulf of Parita, and at the 

 mouths of the Chico, Chiman, and Maje rivers. On the larger streams 

 some range inland but not above the limit of the tide. At high water 

 willets often join the whimbrels on perches in the mangroves, to rest 

 until falling water again leaves their feeding grounds bare. 



Few range to the offshore islands. I saw them on Isla Coiba in 

 January 1956 and collected one. In the Pearl Islands Morrison shot 

 a female on Isla San Jose on September 23, 1944, and Brown col- 

 lected 2 females on Isla del Rey on February 20 and March 2, 1904. 

 I secured a male at the mouth of the Rio Cacique on this island on 

 January 27, 1960. 



Peters (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 71, 1931, p. 303) has re- 

 corded a female inornatus taken at Cricamola, Bocas del Toro, on 

 September 19, 1927. Eisenmann (Condor, 1957, p. 252) saw a willet 

 at the mouth of the Rio San San on July 3, 1956, in this same prov- 

 ince. And Wedel collected one at Puerto Obaldia, San Bias, March 

 15, 1935. These are the only records at present for the Caribbean side. 



The typical race Catoptrophorus semipalmatus semipalmatus has 

 been recorded as a migrant visitor south to western Costa Rica, and 

 so may range occasionally to Panama. It is darker, more brownish 

 gray above and is smaller especially in length of bill and tarsus. In 

 males, the bill ranges from 53 to 58, and the tarsus from 54 to 58.5 

 mm ; and in females, the bill measures from 52.5 to 59, and the tarsus 

 from 51.5 to 58 mm. 



APHRIZA VIRGATA (Gmelin): Surfbird; Chorlito de Rompiente 



Tringa virgata Gmelin, Syst. Nat., vol. 1, pt. 2, 1789, p. 674. (Prince William 

 Sound, Alaska.) 



A heavy-bodied shorebird, with short, greenish-yellow legs; dark 

 gray to dull black above, with white rump. 



Description. — Length 230 to 245 mm. Breeding dress, head and 

 neck with feathers dull black centrally, edged widely with dull brown- 

 ish gray; back dull black, with the feathers edged and tipped with 

 dull white, dull gray, and a few markings of dull buff; wing coverts 

 dark gray ; primary coverts and outer secondaries white, forming a 

 distinct white line ; rump and upper tail coverts white ; tail with cen- 



