104 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part i 



were "extremely sedentary," even though the "species was common 

 all over the clearing of hundreds of acres. On the morning of April 

 27th the species * * * had disappeared. A circuit of the clearing 

 revealed no Indigo Buntings. I thought they had left for the North, 

 but on the 28th I saw again small flocks and noted bands on the legs 

 of some birds. However, they were very restive, wandering about 

 and not coming to the trap. On April 30th one was retaken in the 

 trap and other banded birds were seen. The main flock probably 

 left for the North that night, for we saw none thereafter, though two 

 unhanded females were taken later (May 4th and 13th) in nets in the 

 forest," He lists bu'ds of both sexes banded in 1931 and retrapped 

 there in 1932. 



D. R. Dickey and A. J. van Rossem (1938) describe the bird in 

 El Salvador as a "common fall and spring migrant and winter visitant 

 to grasslands and fields throughout the Arid Lower and Arid Upper 

 Tropical zones. The extreme dates of arrival and departure were 

 October 26 and April 30." They say, "good-sized flocks were found 

 in suitable territory everywhere below 3,500 feet. Although the 

 species was less numerous in midwinter than during migrations, still 

 it was fairly common in grasslands, fields and pastures, and at times 

 even invaded the more open second-growth woodland. * * * a 

 few even penetrated the coffee groves, an environment in which they 

 seemed strangely out of place." 



Alexander F. Skutch wrote Mr. Bent as follows: "The indigo 

 bunting arrives in Central America during the latter half of October 

 and soon spreads over the whole length of the region, as far south as 

 western Panama. Although on October 20, 1933, I met a migrating 

 bunting as high as 8,500 feet in the Guatemalan mountains, I found 

 none passing the winter in districts so high and cold. The winter 

 range extends from the lowlands of both coasts up to possibly 7,000 

 feet above sea level. Indigo buntings are especially numerous between 

 about 3,000 and 5,000 feet in the drier, deforested regions of the 

 highlands and Pacific slope of Guatemala. At the end of October 

 1933 I found them in large, loose flocks in the weedy fields about 

 Panajachel beside Lake Atitlan, 5,000 feet above sea level; here at 

 this season they were far more abundant than any other finch, resident 

 or migratory. In December 1934 and January 1935 they were 

 common in the coffee-producing zone of the Pacific slope between 

 Colomba and Finca 'Moca,' at about 3,000 feet above sea level. * * * 



"Although so gregarious in districts where there are extensive grassy 

 or weedy fields, amid the heavy vegetation of the humid lowlands 

 indigo buntings are more solitary; in clearings amid the rain forests 

 I have generally met them singly or a few — rarely as many as half a 

 dozen — together, in bushy pastures, old grainfields rapidly being 



