FAMILY PHASIANIDAE 315 



(Two specimens from the H. Bryant collection in the American 

 Museum of Natural History labeled as from the Panama Railroad 

 Line collected by "J^ McLellan" undoubtedly have erroneous data, 

 as the quail has not been known to range so far to the eastward.) 



COLINUS CRISTATUS MARIAE Wetmore 



Colintts cristatus mariae Wetmore, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 145, no. 1, June 

 26, 1962, p. 5. (7 kilometers south of Alanje, Province of Chiriqui, Panama.) 



Characters. — Definitely darker throughout; blacker on the back 

 and wings; black markings on the lower surface more extensive, 

 particularly on the upper breast and the lower foreneck. 



Measurements. — Males (6 specimens), wing 92.6-95.3 (93.7), tail 

 46.3-52.3 (49.2), culmen from cere 12.7-13.9 (13.2), tarsus 27.9- 

 29.1 (28.5) mm. 



Females (3 specimens), wing 92.0-96.1 (94.0), tail 45.7-50.0 

 (48.4), culmen from cere 12.4-13.4 (12.8), tarsus 27.2-29.4 (28.5) 

 mm. 



Resident. Western Chiriqui from the southern slopes of the 

 Volcan de Chiriqui near Boquete (El Salto, 1,350 meters elevation), 

 and El Frances (1,000 to 1,100 meters near El Banco) down to the 

 coastal plain near the sea below Alanje (Martina, Paja Blanca). 



On my first brief views of these birds on the sandy plain below 

 Alanje the much darker color, compared to the quail of Veraguas 

 and Code, was immediately evident, though it was several days before 

 I was successful in shooting a pair for specimens. The birds ranged, 

 as usual with this species, in small coveys in open lands where thickets 

 offered cover, but nowhere did they seem abundant. When I en- 

 countered them, usually in driving a jeep along roads deep in sand, 

 they flew a few feet or ran among low bushes where they disappeared 

 instantly and seldom were seen again, even where the cover was of 

 limited extent. Later I found one covey in the sloping fields at El 

 Salto above Boquete, where the birds flew a short distance and hid 

 in low bushes where we tramped about for some time without success 

 in seeing them again. These observations were made in the first 

 half of March when the bands included young birds from half to 

 three-quarters grown. 



This western population of the crested bobwhite has a decidedly 

 restricted distribution, as it was not found by the early collectors in 

 Chiriqui. The oldest specimens that I have seen, sent to Rothschild 

 by H. J. Watson, were taken at EI Frances below Boquete in 1895, 

 Apparently they were not common here, for Watson's further 



