INDIGO BUNTING 105 



overgrown with tall weeds and shrubs, and about the edges of the 

 tangled thickets that cover lands which have enjoyed freedom from 

 man's disturbance for a longer period. * * * 



"On my farm, in the Basin of El General in southern Costa Rica, 

 I seldom meet indigo buntings. But in the afternoon of April 11, 1945, 

 a bunting clad in brown, without much doubt a female, came re- 

 peatedly to eat bananas at the feeding shelf in a guava tree beside my 

 house — the only representative of the species I ever saw there. * * * 

 After 6 days' attendance at the feeding shelf she left, probably diu-ing 

 the night of April 16; and it is now nearly 3 years since I have seen 

 one of her kind at my feeding-station. Incidentally, she provided 

 my latest spring record of the occurrence of the indigo bunting in 

 Costa Rica. * * * 



"Most of the indigo buntings leave Central America during the first 

 fortnight of April, and few are seen after the middle of the month." 



For Costa Rica, as a whole, Slud (1964) writes: 



During migration it occurs along both slopes, much more commonly the Pacific 

 side and the central plateau, occasionally on the Caribbean side. It is met 

 in largest numbers in the southwest, mostly in the upper tropical belt, and with 

 fair regularity in the dry-forested lowlands in the northwest. The bird prefers 

 "field" habitats, that is, open-country scrub, grassy and bushy pastures, aban- 

 doned agricultural lands, and low thickety edges. Usuallj^ it occurs in small 

 flocks, close to or on the ground, that wander about perhaps within a circum- 

 scribed area or probably over longer distances. On the Caribbean side during the 

 winter, at any rate, a small group may briefly reappear a few times in an area 

 with suitable habitat, even in heavily forested regions * * *. The birds are 

 mostly female-plumaged, usually with a blue individual or two or several with a 

 touch of blue. 



L. Griscom (1932) says, "Mr. Anthony ^vrites that Indigo Buntings 

 were especially noticeable at Sacapulas [Guatemala] in January and 

 February, where they shared with P. ciris the honor of being the most 

 abundant species, hundreds being flushed from the fields of dry weeds 

 along the Rio Negro. In common with most, if not all, of the migrants 

 from the United States these birds become excessively fat, just before 

 they depart for the north." 



In British Honduras, Russell (1964) notes that the indigos first 

 arrive in mid-September and by late October are common. They 

 frequent grassy areas, low huamil, and brushy plantation edges in 

 flocks of 10 to 30. Many transients were seen at Half Moon Cay, 

 April 16-24, and most have left the country by April 25. Two 

 individuals banded in March at Middlesex by Nickell were recaptured 

 the next year at the same locality. 



After many years of ornithological experience in Panama, Dr. 

 Alexander Wetmore writes Johnston of its occurrence there: "In its 

 fall migration the Indigo Bunting comes regularly to western Panama, 



