THE BIRDS OF ISLA ESCUDO DE VERAGUAS, 



PANAMA 



By ALEXANDER WETMORE 



Research Associate, Smithsonian Institution 



(With One Plate) 



Isla Escudo de Veraguas lies in the southern Caribbean Sea at 

 lat. 9°o6' N., long. 8i°34' W., distant a little more than 18 kilometers 

 from Coco Plum Point on the base of the Valiente Peninsula, Prov- 

 ince of Bocas del Toro. The island is roughly rectangular, with a 

 projecting point at the southeast and a somewhat irregular shoreline 

 on the western and northern sides. It is a little over 4 kilometers 

 long by less than i-| wide, with the long axis running east and west. 

 A sand beach extends along three-fourths of the southern side, around 

 the flat, open southeastern point, and across the eastern side, past 

 the mouth of a small stream, to end against a cliff, 12 meters high, 

 of sandy, indurated clay. Similar bluffs separated by short stretches 

 of beach mark the shoreline along the west and north. The northern 

 side is broken by a small bay with a sand beach at its head. On the 

 west the sea has cut back into the land, leaving several small islets, 

 some of them barren except for grass and other low herbage, and 

 some with a crown of brush and trees. Wave action is steadily erod- 

 ing the low cliffs, forming small caves, and in some cases arches that 

 pass through projecting points to the sea on the opposite side. The 

 shallow bank surrounding the island indicates that this process has 

 served to reduce it in size. The land back of the southern beach, 

 elevated sufficiently above high-tide line to form a flat, is fringed 

 with coconut palms on the sea side. Behind these extends low jungle 

 in which scattered trees rise 15 to 20 meters tall. Toward the center 

 the surface is lower and is swampy, with two or three trickles of fresh 

 water, discolored by swamp peat, that drain to the sea. There is a 

 small stand of mangroves at the mouth of the stream that enters the 

 sea above the southeastern point. 



Columbus during his fourth voyage sighted the island on Oc- 

 tober 17, 1502, when he came out of the Laguna de Chiriqui through 

 Canal del Tigre (Tiger Channel) (Morison, 1942, vol. 2, p. 350). 

 He gave it the name El Escudo as it appeared to resemble an escudo, 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 139, NO. 2 



