Major General Willis Hale, 
Commanding General, 
Caribbean Air Command, 
Albrook Field, Canal Zone. 
Dear General Hale: 
Under date of 17 April 1948 I forwarded a letter to 
General Carl Spaatz, Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, 
expressing my thanks, and that of the Smithsonian Institution, 
for your kindness in making available by loan a jeep for 
official travel during my recent scientific expedition in western 
Panama. This car made it possible to cover a considerable 
area that would not otherwise have been available, and so added 
measurably to the results of the work. In fact, through this 
transportation the value of the data secured was more than doubled. 
I am pleased to give you herewith a somewhat more 
detailed statement than that furnished to General Spaatz. The 
purpose of my own work was to collect a representative series 
of the birds of this region for the U. S. National Museum with other 
scientific data relating to the ornithology of the section. 
My headquarters for this work was located in the 
village of Parita in the Province of Herrera where I joined a party 
of archeologists from the Smithsonian Institution engaged in ex¬ 
cavations in the Indian deposits of that area. With Parita as a 
base I worked intensively throughout the eastern two thirds of the 
Province of Herrera, and the northern third of the Province of Los 
Santos. In addition I made a trip down through eastern Los Santos 
as far as Punta Mala. 
The work may be considered under three divisions, 
the first concerned with the seacoast, with its sandy beaches and 
extensive mangrove swamps found at the mouths of the principal 
streams. Inland there was the coastal plain from four to six miles 
in width, narrowing considerably below Pedasi, and inland from there 
