282 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



line of cinnamon; upper breast, abdomen, tibia, and under tail co- 

 verts cinnamon-brown ; middle and lower breast and sides black, 

 barred with white and buff; under wing coverts black with irregular 

 spots of white and buff; under surface of wing dark gray, barred 

 with white. 



Immature, similar, but upper surface with narrow edgings of buffy 

 brown, except that secondaries and scapulars are tipped with white; 

 foreneck buffy white; breast, tibia, and under tail coverts barred 

 heavily with buff ; under wing coverts heavily spotted with buff. 



Measurements. — Males (3 from Mexico, Costa Rica, and Peru), 

 wing 244-249 (247), tail 115-130 (120.4), culmen from cere 18.1- 

 19.2 (18.6), tarsus 39.6-41.2 (40.2) mm. 



Females (3 from Brazil, Peru, and Paraguay) wing 265-284 

 (277.6), tail 133.5-145.7 (138.3), culmen from cere 21.6-23.0 (22.2), 

 tarsus 44.6-47.8 (46.2) mm. 



Resident. In the tropical zone, very rare. 



The present specimen records for Panama known to me are of 

 a male, now in the British Museum, collected at Bugaba, Chiriqui, in 

 1869 by Enrique Arce; and another skin labeled Chiriqui in the 

 Rothschild Collection. 



Little known. The species has been reported at scattered points 

 from Veracruz south through Central and South America to Para- 

 guay and northern Argentina. 



Griscom's inclusion of Veraguas in his check-list (Bull Mus. Comp. 

 Zool., vol. 78, 1935, p. 302) apparently was based on sight records 

 that he made during his travels through that area. In an earlier 

 account on the birds of Guatemala (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 vol. 64, 1932, p. 164) under this species he wrote that in "western 

 Panama the bird nests in church towers and belfries in the hearts 

 of towns and cities." Later he informed Eugene Eisenmann that 

 his observations were made in Santiago and Las Palmas. The 

 records seem so unusual that they require confirmation, especially 

 since the bat falcon, so similar in markings, is the species found 

 frequently in the plazas of such towns. 



On March 29, 1957, along the highway 18 kilometers west of 

 Penonome, as I drove slowly one of these falcons crossed close 

 in front of my jeep and swung into the shelter of a grove along 

 a small stream. When it swerved from side to side I had a clear 

 view of the back, and saw the under surface less plainly. My 

 impression was of a beautifully marked and graceful bird, similar 

 to a bat falcon but of larger size. 



