INTRODUCTION 



The tropical part of America has a more 

 varied and abundant bird fauna than any 

 other part of the world. The Republic of 

 Panama, situated at the junction of the two 

 continents, and possessing many species char- 

 acteristic of each as well as peculiar to itself, 

 is excelled in the number of its species by few, 

 if any, regions of the same extent. 



The climate of the Canal Zone is tropical 

 throughout ; there is no elevation great enough 

 to moderate the temperature. On the Atlan- 

 tic side, the rainfall is about 135 inches, while 

 on the Pacific side it is only about 65 inches. 

 During the dry season, the air on the Atlantic 

 side remains somewhat moist, the trees 

 greener; the forest is the so-called "rain 

 forest" of the Atlantic slope; on the Pacific 

 side, no rain falls during that season, the earth 

 becomes parched and cracked in the sabanas 

 and many of the trees lose their leaves. Due 

 to this climatic disparity, there is some varia- 

 tion in the distribution of bird-life, but, owing 

 to the absence of high mountains, the climatic 

 difference and that in the species of birds 

 occurring on the two sides of the Zone, are 

 much less than in other parts of Panama. 



The ornithology of many parts of the Re- 

 public has been as yet insufficiently studied; 

 however in the case of the Canal Zone, the 

 birds are now pretty well known, though there 

 still remain a number of species that seem 



