April 18, 1950. 
Brigadier General R. Beam, 
Commanding General Caribbean Air Command, 
Albrook Air Force Base, 
Canal Zone. 
Dear General Beam: 
I regretted very much that the Holy Week holidays, 
and an urgent message for my immediate return to Washington, 
prevented my seeing you personally prior to my departure for the 
north following the close of my field work in eastern Panama, 
May 1 express to you, through this letter, my sincere appreciation 
for the assistance that 1 have had from you and from various 
members of the Air Forces under your direction. 
You will recall I was taken into Chiman on the 
Pacific coast about 90 miles east of Balboa on February 15 by one 
of the Air Force crash boats, and that I finally came out, through 
prior arrangement, on April 3. My work was completely success¬ 
ful and I secured a representative collection of birds of this section, 
including the lower slopes of Cerro Chucantx. This material 
constitutes the first study to be made of the kind in this area, and 
it is, therefore, a very definite addition to the collections of the U.S. 
National Museum. 
In Chiman I arranged the necessary native assistance, 
worked first on the R{o Chiman, and then moved around by sea in 
cayucos to the Rfo Maje. On the latter stream we went in by cayuco 
to the head of tidewater, and then walked in with porters to the 
interior mountains over a trail that had been made by Army engineer 
to a radar station maintained there during the war. We made a 
permanent camp on one of the streams, and from here cut hunting 
trails up the mountain ridges to an elevation of about 2000 feet. We 
came out in good health and with all of our collections intact, these 
including 970 study skins of birds of 225 species. Some of them I 
am certain are new to science, and a number I have never seen be¬ 
fore alive. 
