JUNGLE-HUNTING IN. PANAMA 
birds which look like geese or brant 
flying heavily along. Your guide will 
say, “Patos grandes, seior, tenga cut- 
dado’—and if you get one you will see 
that it is the grand old Muscovy 
duck, one of the largest, if not the 
largest, of the order. Herons are 
everywhere and the collector can now 
and then get a specimen of the real 
silver heron and the American ibis 
as they drift calmly over, ignoring the 
presence of man, from whom they 
have as yet had nothing to fear. I 
have also secured specimens of the 
roseate spoonbill on the Pacific side, 
though their occurrence is rare. 
If larger game is wanted in the 
swamps and lagoons, take your rifle; 
you will need smokeless powder and 
soft-nose bullets to kill these big 
’gators and “kill them dead.” At 
first one wants to kill the big fellows 
and probably does so, while the ex- 
perienced trophy hunter takes one of 
medium size and secures better skin, 
better teeth and skull. The skull, by 
the way, is cleaned for you by the ants; 
those omnipresent, tireless little workers 
Swarming everywhere in this country. 
Simply put the skull, cleaned as well 
as you can, where the ants can get at 
it and where wild animals cannot. In 
a remarkably short time it is as clean 
as any skilled workman could prepare 
it and is ready fora simple lime wash 
and bleaching in the sun. Set the teeth 
with plaster-of-paris and your speci- 
men is complete and shows a formid- 
able array of pearly teeth set in most 
vicious-looking jaws. The alligator 
here is the same lazy-looking fellow we 
see in our own Southern states but is 
much bolder, while among the best 
“banks” are to be found splendid speci- 
mens of all sizes to photograph and 
shoot. In the higher lands and the 
hills the variety of game compares 
favorably with the best in our own 
country, but, like all country covered by 
unbroken forest, the cover is so good 
that the amount of game is not appre- 
ciated until it is studied and until your 
woodcraft, probably learned in North- 
499 
ern woods, has been adjusted to the 
new surroundings. Instead of looking 
for grouse or bear signs, you look for 
pavos, the native wild turkeys, and 
puercos, or wild hogs; instead of grow- 
ing interested over a moose track, you 
grasp the rifle a little tighter and begin 
to hurry when a fresh trail of the big 
tapir shows that the largest of Central 
American game has passed. For the 
man who likes shooting, rather than the 
woods life, the lowlands, with their 
really good jack-snipe and shore bird 
shooting, are to be preferred, but to a 
man who likes “being out” the uplands 
are full of interest. 
Much of the bird and animal life is 
not, strictly speaking, “game,” but it is 
all new and worth studying. You see 
doves of several species; “mountain 
hens” (grouse-like birds resembling our 
ruffed grouse but smaller); the wild 
Guinea-fowl; the paisano which is like 

A TAME THREE-YEAR-OLD BUCK—J. C. C. 
BUNGALOW IN BACKGROUND 
