INTRODUCTION 



3 



descriptions and measurements were made by Mr. Pasquier. Spanish 

 names through the Ptilogonatidae are from Dr. Wetmore's manuscript, 

 with occasional modification by Eugene Eisenmann; the remaining 

 Spanish names were kindly provided by Drs. Pedro Galindo and Eu- 

 storgio Mendez of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory in Panama. Al- 

 though the Canal Zone no longer exists as a political entity, we have 

 continued to use this designation to reflect the localities that appear on 

 specimen labels and to be consistent with the remainder of this series. 



Several species belonging to families treated in the first three vol- 

 umes have subsequently been found in Panama for the first time. Ac- 

 counts of these species appear in an appendix. As in the earlier volumes, 

 accounts of species whose presence in Panama has not been supported 

 by specimens are bracketed, and literature citations appear within the 

 text. We have resorted so frequently to Ridgely's indispensible Guide 

 to the Birds of Panama (Princeton University Press, Princeton, N. J., 

 1976), that this reference is cited simply as "Ridgely, 1976," with the 

 appropriate page number. 



Dr. Wetmore originally intended to include a complete bibliography 

 as well as an account of the history of ornithology in Panama, but we 

 have not attempted to provide either and have settled simply for finish- 

 ing the species accounts. A gazetteer is in preparation to be published 

 separately. As we could not hope to emulate the devotion that Dr. Wet- 

 more invested in the production of the first three volumes in this series, 

 we can only trust that the ultimate result will be judged better than 

 nothing at all. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



We are especially indebted to the late Eugene Eisenmann and to 

 Robert S. Ridgely, who read over drafts of the manuscript and used 

 their special knowledge of Panamanian birds to suggest many valuable 

 alterations and additions. We have also had the pleasure of consulting 

 frequently with Mrs. Alexander Wetmore concerning various aspects 

 of the production of this volume. Further information and specimens 

 that were of use in the preparation of this volume were provided by John 

 Farrand, Jr., John W. Fitzpatrick, Pedro Galindo, Frank B. Gill, John 

 W. Hardy, C. Lynn Hayward, Ned K. Johnson, Lloyd F. Kiff, Wesley 

 E. Lanyon, Marcy Lawton, Eustorgio Mendez, John P. O'Neill, Ken- 

 neth C. Parkes, Allan R. Phillips, Ralph W. Schreiber, Robert W. 

 Storer, and Melvin A. Traylor, to all of whom we remain indebted. 



Although many of the text drawings for this volume had already 



