Notes from a Traveler in the Tropics 13 



killed a great number of forest trees, and their grey skeletons, crowded with 

 parasitic plants, still mar a large part of its shore-line. But I note a marked 

 decrease in their number since my last visit to this region, two years ago, and 

 ere long they will doubtless all have fallen, when this body of water, with its 

 164 square miles of surface, its richly forested shores, picturesque islands, and 

 distant mountain views will become one of the beautiful lakes of the tropics. 

 Let us hope that birds will discover its charms; that Herons will nest upon its 

 islets and Ducks winter upon its waters. At present few birds are seen, either 

 from a steamer in crossing it or from a train on its shores. Two or three Brown 

 Pelicans, a few Cormorants, and a flock of about fifty Ducks (Tree Ducks) 

 completes the list of those observed. 



Just before crossing the Chagres River one passes through some really fine 

 tropical forest, with towering walls of rich and varied vegetation rising from 

 quiet pools of water which mirror the countless leaf-forms above. Here I saw 

 two Yellow-breasted Toucans, flapping and sailing their slow way, a pair of 

 large Parrots, and two maroon-colored Tanagers — just a suggestion of the life 

 which these forests doubtless contain. 



Although the journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific side of the Isthmus 

 is only 50 miles, this narrow neck of land has continental attributes. It 

 has its continental divide, which, in spite of its low altitude of some 300 feet, 

 serves to create a marked difference in the climate of the northern and southern 

 slopes of the Isthmus, giving to the former a much heavier rainfall, an<l, 

 consequently, more luxuriant vegetation than is found on the southern slope. 

 Before reaching the summit of the divide we had entered the clouds and a 

 downpour of rain shut out the view, but as we went down the southern slopes 

 we left the clouds and rain behind to find a clear evening in Panama. 



Red Cross duties, connected with the extremely active Canal Zone Chapter 

 and with the Panama Red Cross, left no time for bird-study of even the most 

 casual kind, and the only birds seen in and about Ancon and Balboa were those 

 which could not well be avoided. The surroundings of the Tivoli Hotel at 

 Ancon are not such as to attract many birds. Swifts {ChcBlura), Martins, 

 Bain vSwallows, Turkey Buzzards, and Black Vultures were familiar aerial 

 forms. At sunrise each morning a Banded Ant-bird (Formicarius) sounded his 

 rolling call a few times and was not heard for the rest of the day. A Wren 

 {Troglodytes)^ reseml)ling our House Wren more nearly in appearance than in 

 song, was common, and a Summer Tanager, whose identit\' was revealed In- 

 its characteristic rliicky-turky-lucky, was seen day after day in a tree near my 

 window. This tree also yielded a Woodpecker {Centurus) and a Wllow Warl)ler, 

 which may or may not have been our Dcndroica (Estiva. 



Blue Tanugers, a Robin-like Tlirush, the \'ellow-breasled Kingbird (Tyraii- 

 nus melancholicus), a mimbir of graicful l-'ork-tailed Flycatchers, and the 

 previously mentioni'd l*aro(|ui'ts were llu' birds which more than met nn' iiaM- 

 way about Ancon. 



