NO. 9 BIRDS OF ISLA COIBA, PANAMA—WETMORE 9 
storm petrel came on board.? This was the only bird specimen 
recorded. 
My own studies of the birds of Coiba extended from January 6 
to February 6, 1956. I had with me two assistants, Armaguedon 
Hartmann of Chiriqui, who had been my helper for the two previous 
field seasons in Panama, and Vicente Alvarez, technician of the 
Malaria Control Force of the U.S. Army, assigned for special work 
by Capt. Gordon Field, 25th Medical Detachment (Preventive Medi- 
cine Survey), and Marvin Keenan, Chief, Mosquito Control Force, 
attached to the Survey mentioned. Through the friendly interest of 
Col. J. W. Oberdorf, Commanding Officer at Albrook Air Base, 
transportation was provided on an Air Force crash boat, which made 
a journey that otherwise would have been difficult, not only rapid, 
but comfortable. Our field equipment and supplies were delivered 
and stowed on board on the afternoon of January 5, under the direc- 
tion of Chief Warrant Officer Claude H. Drake, Commanding 
Officer, Crash Boat Detachment, who commanded the boat on the 
following day. We left the crash boat base at Fort Rodman, C.Z., 
at 3:50 a.m., January 6, passed out of the Canal, and at 8:30 a.m. 
were abreast of Cape Mala. At 1:30 p.m. we dropped anchor in 
Bahia Damas, Isla Coiba, off the Penal Colony Headquarters, after 
a pleasant and interesting journey of 220 miles. 
Capitan Juan A. Souza, Director de la Colonial Penal de Coiba, 
came off to greet me, and we were soon ashore and established in two 
rooms in a new hospital building. The captain assigned a trusty as 
our cook, regularly supplied us with fresh meat, vegetables, oranges, 
and platanos, and assisted us throughout the work effectively and 
courteously. 
During the following month I was out in the field daily, having 
boat transportation whenever needed by cayuco driven by an out- 
board motor, handled competently by a convict skilled in such craft. 
On foot and by boat I was thus able to cover the entire shoreline 
of Bahia Damas, from Punta Fea at the entrance of Boca Grande, 
beyond the southernmost convict work camp at Playa Blanca, to 
Punta Damas on the north. Farther north we worked along the 
Ensenada Arenosa to the work camp at Juncal. On February 4 I 
went by cayuco to Isla Rancheria off the northeastern end of Coiba, 
a journey I had attempted on an earlier day, but had been driven 
back by suddenly rising seas. In addition we opened a hunting trail 
2See Beebe, Zoologica, vol. 28, 1932, pp. 297-298; Book of Bays, 1942, pp. 
280, 207. 
