FAMILY TINAMIDAE 23 



crown and hindneck blacker ; f oreneck and upper breast darker gray. 



Measurements. — Males (20 specimens from Panama), wing 117.4- 

 128.0 (122.4), culmen from base 20.0-22.5 (21.1), tarsus 36.9- 

 41.3 (38.4) mm. 



Females (20 specimens from Panama), wing 124.6-138.0 (129.8), 

 culmen from base 20.0-22.6 (21.7), tarsus 37.4-42.2 (40.6) mm. 



Resident. Found in the Tropical Zone and lower Subtropical Zone 

 on the Pacific slope from the far eastern area of the Province of Pana- 

 ma (Rio Maje) through Darien; on the Caribbean slope from 

 western Colon, east through the northern Canal Zone, the upper 

 Chagres drainage (Rio Boqueron), and San Bias. 



Two sets of two eggs each from Boca del Rio Indio, western Col6n, 

 taken February 18 and 20, 1952, are between pale and light brownish 

 drab in color. One set measures 42.7x32.0 and 42.4x32.5 mm., 

 the other 43.3x32.0, and 43.8x33.2 mm. The first was fresh, the 

 second incubated about one-third. At the mouth of the Rio Paya, 

 Darien, on February 24, 1959, I found the lower half shells of two 

 eggs evidently recently hatched that are deeper in color than those 

 described above, being near brownish drab. 



Van Tyne (Occ. Pap. Mus. Zool., Univ. Michigan, no. 525, 

 1950, pp. 2-3) records the measurements of three sets of two eggs 

 each found on Barro Colorado, as from 40.7 X 30.5 to 44.0 X 32.0 mm., 

 with a range in weight from 20.4 to 23 grams. He reports the 

 weight of a male bird in breeding condition as 209 grams. 



In laboratory examination of six stomachs, the greater part of 

 the food was found to be seeds of a wide variety of kinds, among 

 which grasses of the genera Paniciim and Paspalum, the sedge 

 Scleria, Amaranthus, a spurge, oxalis, species of mallow, grape, and 

 passionflower, Styrax, and Solatium were identified. Smaller amounts 

 of animal food, often only traces, included fragments of a roach, 

 ants, beetles, a bug (heteropteran), and bones of a small frog. Gravel, 

 as a grinding agent, was present in varying amounts, up to 20 

 percent of the contents. 



The name panamensis was proposed by Carriker in 1910 to cover 

 the little tinamous of Panama east of the range of C. s. modestus. 

 Griscom (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 1932, pp. 309-310) noted that birds 

 from eastern Panama were darker and listed them under the 

 name harterti Brabourne and Chubb. It has been readily evident that 

 there are two populations in the central and eastern part of the 

 isthmus, but there has been confusion relative to them owing to 

 lack of comprehension of local geography, particularly in the Canal 



