DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW GENERA, SPECIES AND SUB- 

 SPECIES OF BIRDS FROM PANAMA, COLOMBIA AND 

 ECUADOR * 



By E. W. NELSON 



The first of January, 191 2, E. A. Goldman, of the Biological Sur- 

 vey, Department of Agriculture, was again detailed on the Smith- 

 sonian Biological Survey of the Canal Zone. Tie returned to Pan- 

 ama in January and remained there until the last of June passing 

 most of this period in collecting birds and mammals on the slopes 

 of Mount Pirri on the Pacific side of eastern Panama, near the 

 Colombian border. Mount Pirri is the highest point (with an alti- 

 tude of over 5,200 feet) of a rather narrow and isolated mountain 

 ridge lying southeast of San Miguel Bay and on the southwest side 

 of the Tuyra Valley. The extreme headwaters of the Tuyra River 

 rise on its slopes. The ridge is connected southerly with the moun- 

 tain divide between the valleys of the Tuyra in Panama and of the 

 Truando River in Colombia. Mount Pirri is heavily forested and 

 although on the southern, or Pacific, side of Panama it receives the 

 benefit of moist air currents from the Carribean so its summit is 

 shrouded in fog most of the year while it has an extremely heavy 

 rainfall. 



Previous to Goldman's work no zoological collector appears to 

 have visited this interesting mountain. Work was done from its 

 basal lowlands to the summit and many birds and mammals not be- 

 fore known from Panama were taken, a number of which are new 

 to science. Many species from the South American fauna appear 

 to here reach their northern limit and are unknown in the Canal 

 Zone or its adjacent mountains, only about 150 miles away in a 

 direct line by land. In the present paper three apparently new- 

 genera and twenty-four new species and subspecies of birds are de- 

 scribed from the slopes of Mount Pirri and its bordering lowlands. 

 In addition two new birds from Colombia and Ecuador and one 

 from western Panama are included. 'Idle new mammals have been 

 described by Goldman," and later a faunal paper will probably be 

 published covering the total results obtained in this district. 



1 This paper is the sixteenth dealing with the results 1 if the Smithsi mian Bio- 

 logical Survey of the Panama Canal Zone. 



2 Smithsonian Misc. Coll., Vol. Go, No. 2, 1912, p. [8. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections Vol. 60, No. 3 



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