28 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 134 
early morning we sometimes saw them along the small streams 
running through the pastures, but it was more usual to hear their 
curious calls from dense cover where they remained hidden, except 
perhaps for a brief impression of movement as one stirred behind 
leafy cover in dense shadows. They call frequently at night. The 
country name is given in imitation of their calls, and curiously, is 
used for other rails, regardless of their size. 
In the swamps they appear to feed largely on crabs, and their 
flesh has a definitely rank odor. One shot in the forest lacked this 
entirely and I found the body, saved from the skinning table, 
excellent eating. 
The three taken—two males and a female—are very slightly darker, 
more reddish brown on the breast and sides when compared with 
mainland skins, being in fact decidedly darker than the average bird 
from Panama proper. Occasional mainland specimens, however, 
approach them so closely that it does not seem appropriate to try to 
separate the Coiba population under a distinct name, particularly in 
view of the considerable individual variation found among these 
rails. 
PORZANA CAROLINA (Linnaeus): Sora, Cocalequita Migratoria 
Rallus carolinus LINNAEUS, Systema naturae, ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 153. (Hud- 
son Bay.) 
On January 14 we secured a male from the dense cover of water 
plants growing in knee-deep water in a small lagoon back of Catival. 
It was my first personal observation in Panama of this northern 
migrant. 
LATERALLUS ALBIGULARIS ALBIGULARIS (Lawrence): White-throated 
Rail, Charrasqueadora 
Corethrura albigularis LAWRENCE, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. New York, vol. 7, 1861, 
p. 302. (Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama along the line of the Pan- 
ama Railroad.) 
These little rails were found, few in number, around a small lagoon 
back of Catival and in a marshy place at San Juan, to my definite 
interest, as I had not expected birds of this type on Coiba Island. 
They were recorded most frequently through their rattling, chattering 
calls, given rapidly from the depths of the thick vegetation standing 
in water that they frequent. They range in pairs, and by patient 
stalking and watching it is sometimes possible to have a glimpse of 
one moving about in the dark shadows, but ordinarily it is difficult 
