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82 EVENTS AND PLACES VISITED
Date Feb. 17, 1963 Sunday
Place Panama City and Barro Colorado Island
Weather Fine, warm, then cloudy & behind
At 11 we got the train for Frijoles, where a native Panamanian met us with the launch. It was a very rough ride across the canal to the Island. We and out baggage rode up the hill on the cogwheel wagon, & found Dr. & Mrs. Bennett & Mr. Crabbs there. They were very kind & showed us the animals & the air-conditioned library. We had an excellent lunch, then unpacked, then sat on the porch watching the birds. Many big boats went by, as in this lake they go under their own power. The birdlife is very apparent, as "oropendula" nests (-orioles) hang from the trees, & the beautiful black & yellow parents keep popping in & out. We saw humming birds with green bodies & reddish tails feeding at the flowering shrubs. Just before dark, some squawking parrots flew overhead, & later 7 or 8 toucans flying singly. An osprey was busy catching fish at the shore line. Three red-tailed monkeys were in a cecropia tree after
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EVENTS AND PLACES VISITED 83
Date
Place
Weather
the sugary pods, & later the "pig", a partly tamed peccary, came & lay down near the kitchen. Tapirs & ocelots are found here, but we did not see any to-night. Afterdark Boca, the Panamanian, took me night-collecting, & Dr. Bennett & Mr. Crebbs came along. It was something for me to descend a hundred steep concrete steps onto a jungle trail, & to poke about many dead leaves for frogs Boca caught 5 Fitzinger's frogs & Crebbs got 1, but no arrowpoison frogs. I was charmed again with the flashlights darting among large treetrunks, & playing on ferns beside the stream. We hunted for over an hour but found little, as it has been too dry here for most kinds of frogs to be out. Boca stayed on for awhile, but we 3 returned to the lab by another steep flight of concrete blocks. I managed to identify the frogs. Crebbs is a former pupil of Dr. Hobbs, & will get crayfish for him.
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