COLLECTING ANIMALS AND PLANTS IN PANAMA, 1937 



By GERRIT S. MILLER, JR. 



Curator, Diz'ision of Mammals, U. S. National Museum 



During the dry season of 1937 I visited Panama in order to become 

 acquainted with a typical area in the continental tropics and to collect 

 vertebrates and plants needed to supplement the large series of speci- 

 mens from this region already in the National Museum. Accompanied 

 by my wife and Charles M. Wheeler, a recent Harvard graduate in 

 biology, I spent three months and three days in and near the Canal 

 Zone, January-April, 1937, as the guest of Colonel Stuart C. Godfrey, 

 in command of the Eleventh Engineers who are charged with the 

 maintenance and defense of the Canal. 



Living at Colonel Godfrey's headquarters in Corozal, with its roomy 

 screened porch for a laboratory, and enjoying the cordial cooperation 

 of the military and civil authorities, we found ideal conditions for our 

 work. In the time at our disposal we were able to see the greater part 

 of the Canal Zone, something of the Madden Lake region, where we 

 camped on the Indio River surrounded by magnificent rain forest, 

 and parts of the less humid Pacific slope drainage area from the Rio 

 Jagua and Chepo toward the northeast (toward Colombia) to Venado 

 Beach and El Valle toward the southwest (toward Costa Rica). We 

 also visited the Pearl Island Archipelago and the islands of Taboga 

 and Taboguilla. On the Indio River and Pearl Island trips our camp- 

 ing at each place was made comfortable and agreeable by Mrs. Miller's 

 skillful cooking and her care of our sleeping arrangements. 



The general characteristics of this region have already been so 

 fully dealt with in Smithsonian publications, notably in Goldman's 

 report on the mammals (Smithsonian Misc. Coll. vol. 69, no. 6, Apr. 

 24, 1920) and in Standley's report on the plants (Contr. U. S. Nat. 

 Herbarium, vol. 27, 1928) that it does not seem necessary to rede- 

 scribe them here. I need merely say that the toucans and woodhewers 

 in the rain forest on the shores of Madden Lake enjoy a yearly rain- 

 fall of about 70 inches, while the pipits and meadowlarks on the savan- 

 nahs 30 miles away to the southeast must be content with only about 

 half as much. With this great difference in water supply, the two 

 regions present striking contrasts in both flora and fauna, contrasts 

 whose appreciation is made easy by automobiles and good roads. 



Two visits to Barro Colorado Island, with its clearly marked trails 

 and well equipped laboratory, were especially enjoyable. Dr. Zetek, 

 the able director, and Dr. Chapman, the island's most distinguished 

 guest, easily convinced us that there could be no better place for the 



3 27 



