NO. 9 BIRDS OF ISLA COIBA, PANAMA—WETMORE II 
and soon it was at anchor. Since the tide was full, we went on board 
that evening in readiness for an early start. At 5:20 a.m. on Febru- 
ary 6 we were underway, and I watched the lights of the Colonia 
Penal and the dark shoreline at either side recede, well satisfied 
with the results of my work, and with many pleasant thoughts of 
the friendly assistance that I had received at the hands of Capitan 
Souza and his staff of guards. We were delayed somewhat by head- 
winds after rounding Cape Mala, but were at the dock at Fort 
Rodman at 3:50 p.m. The entire expedition is one that remains 
most pleasantly in memory. 
THE BIRD LIFE 
The annotated list that follows these introductory paragraphs 
covers 133 species and subspecies of birds that are recorded from 
Isla Coiba, with remarks on 4 additional (a skua, a gull, and 2 terns) 
noted in the Gulf of Panama en route to and from the island. Of 
the total as given, 36 are migrants, one, the small Galapagos storm 
petrel, coming from Peruvian waters to the south, another, a sub- 
species of the yellow-green vireo (Vireo flavoviridis hypoleucus), 
found en route from winter quarters in South America to nesting 
grounds in northwestern México, and the remainder kinds that nest 
in the United States and Canada, present for the period of the north- 
ern winter. Plovers, sandpipers, and related shorebirds, 10 species 
in all, were the most common, with scattered individuals of 6 wood 
warblers and the summer tanager standing next in abundance. 
Kinds that are resident in Panama as a whole number 97, a few 
of these like the black jacana, the white-collared swift, and the fork- 
tailed flycatcher, being merely wanderers from the mainland. Among 
the resident kinds the amount of endemism that is found is quite 
remarkable, in part for the number of species concerned, and in part 
for the fact that its extent has gone unnoted for so long. Four well- 
marked subspecies had been described from Batty’s collections prior 
to my visit—the wood pigeon by Rothschild, the Cuvier’s humming- 
bird and pepper-shrike by Hartert, and the white-throated robin by 
Eisenmann. These four I recognized easily, and in addition, from 
my first day afield I observed differences among a number of others, 
sometimes on my first view of the bird in life, sometimes after speci- 
mens were in hand, even though no comparative material was 
available. 
In the following report I have described 16 races that are new to 
science, in addition to the 4 mentioned, several of them so well 
