FAMILY TINAMIDAE I5 



and sides of head blackish; upper surface dark brown, with the 

 feathers crossed by irregular black bars, so narrow that the two 

 colors blend to produce an olive appearance; wings and lower back 

 more or less spotted with buff; undersurface from the throat to the 

 abdomen cinnamon-buff, with the throat plain, and the rest sparsely 

 barred with narrow lines of black ; sides and under tail coverts olive 

 brown, barred with black ; abdomen buff, barred with black. 



The finer black barring above and the cinnamon-brown throat, with 

 smaller size, smoother posterior surface of the tarsus, and longer 

 middle toe and claw, separate this bird from the great tinamou. 



A recently hatched chick in the Museum of Comparative Zoology 

 from Costa Rica (no. 55339) has the crown and hindneck dull black, 

 with partly concealed barring of dull white ; rest of dorsal surface 

 mingled rufous and black; sides of head dull black, spotted with 

 white ; throat whitish, spotted indistinctly with neutral gray ; under 

 surface cinnamon-buff, with foreneck darker and mingled with black. 

 The coloration as a whole is decidedly darker than that of the chick 

 of Tinamus major. 



Jose Zeledon on the label of a specimen in the U. S. National 

 Museum noted the following colors of the soft parts in a breeding 

 female tal<en at La Palma de San Jose, Costa Rica : Iris brown ; 

 base of mandible whitish, rest of bill black ; tarsi and toes plumbeous, 

 with a slight olivaceous tint. 



Measurements. — Males (8 specimens from Chiriqui and Costa 

 Rica), wing 200-209 (205), culmen from base 31.2-35.4 (33.1), 

 tarsus 66.6-71.3 (69.0), middle toe with claw 48.4-52.0 (50.3) mm. 



Females (10 specimens from Chiriqui and Costa Rica), wing 

 208-233 (220), culmen from base 32.7-36.8 (34.5), tarsus 68.1-74.6 

 (72.5), middle toe with claw 50.2-55.4 (52.3) mm. 



Resident. Through the uppermost Tropical and Subtropical Zone 

 forests of the Volcan de Chiriqui and the higher ridges adjacent. 

 Recorded from 1,400 to 2,000 meters elevation near Boquete, and 

 from 1,400 to 1,800 meters on Cerro Pando, above the Rio Chiriqui 

 Viejo. It is found also in subtropical zone forests of central and 

 southern Costa Rica. 



The present subspecies, A^. b. frantsii, a highland bird, is isolated 

 geographically from its nearest relative, N, b. intercedens of the 

 western Andes of Colombia, by the central depression of the Isthmus 

 of Panama. It differs from intercedens, and from the three addi- 

 tional races at present recognized from Colombia, Ecuador and 

 Venezuela, as follows : General coloration more buffy, less rufescent, 



