12 



Bird- Lore 



On a few occasions 1 have seen Man-o '-war-birds give marvelous exhibitions 

 of iheir mastery of the air, but to 'float lazily' seems to be their principal 

 occupation. 



The first bird-note which the newly arrived traveler will probably hear 

 in Cristobal will be not the chatter of Sparrows but the shrill twitter of Paro- 

 quets {Brotogeris). If they be passing on the wing, he may have a glimpse 

 of them, but if they are perched in one of the cocoanut palms which line the 

 streets, he may search for them in vain. In Cristobal, Ancon, and Balboa, 



these little green birds never fail to 

 give welcome emphasis to their tropical 

 surroundings. 



The bird- student whose tirst view of 

 a tropical forest is from a train crossing 

 the Isthmus of Panama, will be dis- 

 appointed in the number of birds he 

 sees. But, aside from the fact that his 

 journey may not be made during the 

 small part of the early morning and 

 smaller part of the late afternoon when 

 birds in the tropics are active, the bird- 

 life of a tropical forest cannot be studied 

 from a railway train ! However, a sharp 

 lookout is sure to be rewarded, [and the 

 possibilities are unlimited. Soon after 

 leaving Cristobal, the train passes 

 through a marsh where, invariably, a 

 number of Herons may be seen. Little 

 Blues, in both slaty (adult) and white 

 (immature) plumage, are always the 



"The first bird-note which the newly-arrived 

 traveler will probably hear in Cristobal will 

 not be the chatter of Sparrows, but the shrill 

 twitter of Paroquets (Brotogeris). 



most common species of this family; 



then follow Louisianas and Little Grays 

 (allied to our Little Green), with rarely 

 White Egrets of both species. Boat- 

 tailed Crackles are common at both sides of the railroad. I saw a single Jacana, 

 daintily raising its wings in characteristic pose until they met above its back, 

 and one Giant Kingfisher (Ccryle torquala), which resembles our Belted King- 

 fisher but is about three times as large. A telegraph wire seemed a peculiarly 

 inappropriate perch for this bird of jungle-bordered streams. The wires also 

 served as lookouts for numerous Sparrow Hawks. In brushy places there 

 were small companies of Anis, their complaining notes drowned by the noise 

 of the passing train. 



After passing Gatun, the railroad runs for miles along the shores of Gatun 

 Lake and crosses arms of it on causeways. The flooding of this area of necessity 



