I90 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA — PART 2 



1957, at Mandinga, San Bias. In early January 1962, with Enrique 

 van Horn and Jose Mena I went in from Rio Duque, located north of 

 the bridge across the Rio Chagres on the Trans-Isthmian Highway, to 

 the region called Frijolito, on the headwaters of the Rio Frijolito, 

 where Van Horn had seen them. In two nights here we heard the 

 birds calling briefly, but did not succeed in finding one. Later this 

 same season on March 1, at a camp in a locality called Tigre, at 475 

 meters elevation at the head of the Rio Guabal, on the Caribbean slope 

 of northern Code I heard one at night. A later record was for 

 March 13, 1963, at Quebrada Venado, in eastern San Bias, when I 

 was awakened by one calling from a huge tree standing in a clearing. 



1 went over there quietly, but though the bird continued its call at 

 intervals until daylight it remained so concealed in the high tree crown 

 that I could not locate it. Finally at the first hint of light it flew 

 across to the forest. 



The voice is a harsh, uncouth grating sound, wah-h-h oo-oo-oo, 

 strongly guttural. It is from this call, wholly unbirdlike, that it is 

 known as leona. The superstitious sometimes believe that it is the 

 voice of a witch. 



In observations in Surinam, Haverschmidt (Auk, 1948, pp. 31-32) 

 found that a great potoo had a regular perch during the day on a 

 branch in the top of a tall tree grown for shade over a coffee plantation. 

 At night also it frequented definite perches from which it had clear 

 view. From these it made regular flights, evidently to capture flying 

 insects. One shot by soldiers November 24, 1946, fell with an egg, 

 which was broken. This bird, an adult female, weighed 581 grams. 



Helmut Sick (Vogelwelt, 1951, pp. 42-43) on July 5, 1949, in the 

 Xingu area of Mato Grosso found the resting place of 1 that he 

 observed for several days. In the absence of the bird on July 19 an 

 egg was visible which rested securely in a slight depression on a hori- 

 zontal branch, 12 meters from the ground. The shell was white with- 

 out gloss, marked with spots of dark brown varied to lilac-gray, which 

 ranged in size from small to 3 mm. in diameter. These spots were 

 most abundant on the larger end of the egg. The egg, shown in a 

 photograph to be elliptical in form, measured 52.1x38.3 mm. 



Recently Land and Schultz (Auk, 1963, p. 195) have extended the 

 range of this strange bird to eastern Guatemala and on the basis of 



2 specimens have described Nyctibius grandis guatemalensis, with the 

 type locality near Panzos, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. The 2 specimens, 

 the type female, and the other taken on Rio Salinas, Peten (sex not 

 known), are said to differ from typical grandis in being larger, 



