No. 12. — Vertebrata from the Savanna of Panama} CONTENTS. Page I. Introduction. By Outram Bangs 211 II. Mammalia. By Outram Bangs 212 III. Aves. By Jolin E. Tiiayer and Outram Bangs 213 IV. Reptilia and Amphibia. By Thomas Barbour 224 V. Pisces. By Samuel Garman 229 I. Introduction. By Outram Bangs. In the process of the John E. Thayer Expedition of 1904, Mr. W. W. Brown, Jr., spent nearly a month — the greater part of May, 1904 — near the city of Panama, making general collections of vertebrates. The region is quite different in character from the hilly, heavily forested interior of the Isthmus, and is described in a letter by Mr. Brown as follows : " My headquarters are at Calidonia at the edge of the swamp of Panama, about a mile from the seashore and about seventy-five yards from the beginning of the mangroves. Toward the north and northeast, the low flat country or Savanna of Panama extends for some four or five miles, gradually rising, to the hills. This is a grassy plain, very dry and burnt in appearance, especially in the dry season, with little patches of wood — island like — scattered about here and there. Near the city of Panama there are several orange groves, where I collected Blue-creepers and some Tanagers that I did not see elsewhere." We did not expect any novel results in the way of species from this collection, but the region is so different — dry and barren — from the country farther inland, at Loma del Leon, etc., where most of the bird collecting on the Isthmus has been done, that we felt it quite worth while to have a representative series from the Savanna of Panama. Mr. Garman in his list includes the fishes from Gorgona Island and the Pearl Islands, as well as those from the vicinity of Panama, while Mr. Barbour notices the reptiles and amphibians from the vicinity of Panama and from the Pearl Islands. 1 Papers from the John E. Thayer Expedition of 1904, No. 3. VOL. xLvi. — No. 12 14
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