INTRODUCTION 



likely to occur there occasionally from what 

 is known of their distribution, but which 

 have thus far not been recorded. 



In this book approximately 434 species are 

 dealt with. It has seemed best not to re- 

 strict its geographical scope exactly to the 

 political limits of the Canal Zone, but to in- 

 clude the nearby islands of the Bay of 

 Panama (Taboga, Tabogilla, Otoque, Chame, 

 etc.) with a few notes on the birds of the more 

 distant Pearl Islands; also the coastal region 

 in the vicinity of Old Panama, Juan Diaz, etc., 

 since these places may be visited by the 

 tourist. This has involved including only 

 a few additional species, most of which 

 doubtless actually occur in the Zone itself, 

 though there may be as yet no records of the 

 fact. Were the entire Republic of Panama 

 to be taken for the geographical limits, the 

 number of species and subspecies would be 

 more than doubled. Some of these addi- 

 tional ones may sooner or later be added to 

 the list of the Canal Zone birds, but most of 

 them are either confined to the distant east- 

 ern or western parts of the Republic, or else 

 are mountain birds which never descend to 

 the low altitudes of the land in the immediate 

 vicinity of the Canal. 



The birds of this region may be divided 

 into two main classes, true natives, and 

 migrants. The true natives remain all the 

 year breeding in the Zone or in parts of 

 tropical America not far distant; while the 

 migrants spend their summers and breed in 

 North America, usually in the United States 

 or in some cases as far away as northern 



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