NO. 5 MAMMALS OF PANAMA GOLDMAN JJ 



it also differs from that animal in local habitat. It appears to be 

 restricted in Panama mainly to the partly open savanna region 

 between the cOast and the mountains on the Pacific side from the 

 Costa Rican frontier eastward to the Bayano River. It also inhabits 

 savannas in the Chagres Valley east of the Canal Zone and is com- 

 mon in partly cleared spaces all along the Canal route, apparently 

 having followed the old line of the Panama Railroad northward to 

 the vicinity of Colon. The white-tailed deer favors the forest 

 borders or the dense thickets and mixed growth of small trees and 

 shrubby vegetation which springs up wherever the original forest is 

 cut, while the brocket, more retiring in habits, prefers the depths of 

 the forest. It is apparently absent in the unbroken forests of the 

 eastern and northern parts of the republic, regions regularly in- 

 habited by the brocket. 



Few specimens have been collected and the exact relationship of 

 the Panama forms to Odocoileus costaricensis remains to be deter- 

 mined. Specimens from as far east as the Canal Zone are referred 

 to Odocoileus chiriquensis . This deer was described by Allen (7. c.) 

 as a subspecies of the insular form, O. rothschildi, on the basis of 

 specimens which had previously been assigned by him (1904, p. 63) 

 to O. costaricensis. The Chiriqui animal is characterized by him 

 as larger and paler and the young less conspicuously spotted than 

 0. rothschildi.. 



The type of O. chiriquensis is a young female with the deciduous 

 premolars still in place and the posterior molar rising from the 

 alveolus. A female topotype has acquired a full series of permanent 

 molariform teeth, but they are very slightly worn. The other topo- 

 type material consists mainly of separate horns. As noted by Allen 

 (1910, p. 95) it is somewhat paler than O. rothschildi, but the 

 decidedly larger size is a better differential character. It is probably 

 more nearly allied to O. costaricensis with which it was first asso- 

 ciated, but the latter was founded on a young male ; in the absence of 

 properly comparable material the relationship to that form cannot be 

 determined and it seems best to treat it as a distinct species. 



During the construction of the Panama Canal white-tailed deer 

 were regularly hunted by organized clubs of white employees using 

 hounds to drive them from cover ; and yet the deer remained fairly 

 numerous near points where heavy blasting and other noisy opera- 

 tions were conducted on a large scale. 



A freshly killed female specimen from near Corozal was received 

 through the Sanitary Inspector, A. R. Proctor, January 22, 191 1. 

 Giving a sharp snort she sprang out before the hounds on the brush- 



