4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 69 



INTRODUCTION 



The following- report contains an account of all the mammals 

 known to occur in Panama. It is based mainly on the material 

 gathered in the course of the biological survey of the Panama Canal 

 Zone, undertaken in 1910 by the Smithsonian Institution with the 

 approval of the President of the United States and in cooperation 

 with various government departments including the Department of 

 Agriculture and the War Department. The initiation of the survey 

 at this time was due to a realization on the part of naturalists of the 

 importance of making field investigations before the completion of 

 the Panama Canal, when disturbed natural conditions would be likely 

 to complicate problems of geographic distribution in this important 

 region. While the author was assigned to investigate the mammals 

 and birds, and somewhat incidentally the reptiles and amphibians, 

 the personnel of the survey also included field naturalists represent- 

 ing various other branches of natural history. In the preparation of 

 the present report specimens of mammals in various museums have 

 been examined and published records referred to in order to bring 

 together as complete data on the subject as practicable. 



The region is of surpassing biological interest, owing to peculiar 

 configuration, varied -topography, and geographic position, forming 

 as it does a slender artery blending the complex elements or converg- 

 ing life currents of two continents, and through which countless 

 migrations of non-volant terrestrial animals probably passed during 

 the Tertiary or early Quaternary ages. But of recent migratory 

 movements in the region we have no evidence, and how effective a 

 barrier the completed Panama Canal may prove to be in limiting the 

 distribution of species remains to be determined. The country, said 

 to have been named " Panama " from an Indian word meaning rich 

 in fish, might with equal propriety have received an appellation 

 meaning rich in mammals, or birds. 



FIELD INVESTIGATIONS 



WORK CONDUCTED BY AUTHOR 



In December, 1910, I was detailed by the Chief of the Biological 

 Survey, United States Department of Agriculture, to field work in 

 Panama and arrived in the Canal Zone for that purpose on the 

 28th day of the month. Proceeding at once to Culebra, the adminis- 

 trative headquarters for the construction of the Panama Canal, I met 

 Colonel (now Major-General) George W. Goethals, the Chairman 

 and Chief Engineer, who expressed the desire of the Isthmian Canal 



