Notes from a Traveler in the Tropics 

 III. FROM PANAMA TO PERU 



By FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



EARLY on the morning of November 14, the S.S. 'UcayaU' of the Peruvian 

 Line, left her moorings at Balboa and steamed slowly through the small 

 gateway in the submarine nets guarding the Pacific entrance to the 

 canal, which is closed nightly from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. The beauties of Panama 

 Bay with its islands, bare and wooded, the foothills and mountains of the 

 surrounding mainland, the white towers and red roofs of Panama remain to 

 become common knowledge ; while the history of this region, from Balboa to 

 Goethals, makes as strong an appeal to the imagination as do its physical 

 features to the eye. 



The waters abound with fish, and the air above them is correspondingly 

 alive with birds. Nowhere else have I seen Man-o'-War Birds so numerous, 

 while Brown Pelicans in stately files flew to their favorite fishing grounds. 

 Some years ago a party of ichthyologists, whose desire for specimens was 

 evidently stronger than their regard for the laws of angling, exploded charges 

 of dynamite in these waters as the most direct means of making a census of 

 their finny inhabitants, but when the shocked or killed victims came floating to 

 the surface the Man-o'-War Birds and Pelicans proved so much more skillful 

 as 'collectors' that the fish-men got a comparatively small share of the booty! 



South of the equator, at just what point I am unable to say, but doubtless 

 near the boundary line of Ecuador and Peru, the Brown Pelican is replaced 

 by the Chilean Pelican, a related but distinct species; but, singularly enough, 

 in spite of the abundance of food and the astounding numbers of birds off the 

 coast of Peru, the Man-o'-War Bird was not observed south of Panama Bay. 

 The absence of the Brown Pelican from the cast coast of South America presents 

 a similar inexplicable problem in distribution. During the succeeding two days 

 few birds were observed. An occasional Shearwater or Petrel {Mstrelata?) 

 was seen scaling over the waves in its unending and apparently fruitless search 

 for food, but we were evidently not sailing over good feeding grounds. \t 

 9 A.M. on the i6th we passed about ten miles to the east of Malpelo Islet, a 

 rocky pile which loomed to surprising height above the horizon. Doubtless it 

 is the home of many sca-l)irds, but, so far as I know, no naturalist has ever 

 landed upon it. 



At 7 o'clock on the morning of the icSth we were off Point Parina, the most 

 western part of South America, and near enough to the shore to see the oil- 

 derricks, which iiKhtate ihi' |)n)(ku"t of this barren coast. .\l 10 a.m. we reached 

 I'ayta, our tust port from J'anania, and we were now fairly within the zone 

 which distinguishes the Peruvian littoral as the home of countless hordes of sea- 

 birds. I'liere were Gulls, Cormorants, Hoobies and Pehians in amazing ahun- 



(87) 



