l6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



especially on the lower surface; dark color of nape extended down 

 over less than half of hindneck, instead of nearly to the back ; under 

 primary coverts plain, or with faint markings on the innermost, 

 instead of appreciably barred throughout. 



This is a forest bird that is even more retiring than the great 

 tinamou, so that little is known of it in Panama, aside from the 

 few specimens that have been taken. 



In the Boquete region the Monniche collection has specimens from 

 Alto de Chiquero, taken between April 19 and May 17, 1933, and 

 Quebrada Velo, August 8, 1939, at elevations of 1,650 to 2,000 

 meters (Blake, Fieldiana: Zool., vol. 36, 1958, p. 504). In the 

 western area, beyond El Volcan, these tinamous are present in small 

 numbers on Cerro Pando, above Palo Santo, west of the Rio Chiriqui 

 Viejo. Two specimens from this area, taken February 18, 1953, and 

 March 6, 1956, have been presented to the U. S. National Museum 

 by Dr. Frank A. Hartman. I had report of this species on the 

 forested ridge above the Quebrada Santa Clara farther to the west, 

 and it is probable that it ranges from 1,400 to 1,800 meters or higher 

 throughout the still unsettled forest section that covers the mountain 

 slopes from Volcan Barii to the Costa Rican border. Available 

 records from Panama come from the Pacific slope. 



Armaguedon Hartmann, who is familiar with this bird in the 

 Tisingal-Santa Clara area, tells me that in April, with the first 

 rains, these birds begin to call, a double note quite different from 

 the whistling of the other two tinamous found in the Republic. As 

 they call usually when moving over the forest floor, it is difficult to 

 approach them because of this movement and of the shelter of low 

 growth in which they live. 



My only view of the bird in Hfe has been of one that I flushed 

 above the Silla de Cerro Pando on February 6, 1960. I had hunted 

 slowly out an old logging road and then returned to the main trail, 

 when one rose from scanty cover, where it had hidden within 6 

 meters of me, and flew 20 meters or so to disappear in a dense 

 thicket. The wings whistled more loudly than in the other species 

 of the family found in Panama, and the bird appeared very brown. 



The little that is known of the breeding habits of the race N. b. 

 frantzii comes from a few observations made in Costa Rica, An 

 tgg in the U, S, National Museum taken from the oviduct of a 

 bird collected by Jose C, Zeledon at La Palma de San Jose (located 

 in the depression between Volcan Irazii and Volcan Barba), on 

 May 1, 1884, is deep glaucous-gray, the smooth surface of the shell 

 reflecting light as usual in birds of this family. It measures 



