326 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 150 



Females (6 from Panama), wing 139.8-149.4 (143.1), tail 49.8- 

 52.8 (50.9), culmen from cere 18.0-18.8 (18.3), tarsus 43.8-47.1 

 (45.7) mm. 



Resident. Rare, local in distribution in tropical zone and lower 

 subtropical zone forests, ranging on Cerro Pirre to 1,600 meters. Not 

 known from the Pacific slope west of the Cerro Azul, except for 

 two reports from the southern side of Veraguas. 



While this species is one of wide distribution there is little knowl- 

 edge of it in Panama other than the few specimens that have been 

 collected. The only records for the Pacific slope of western Panama 

 are of one sent by Arce to Salvin (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1867, 

 p. 161), marked as from near Santiago, and another in the American 

 Museum collected near Santa Fe on March 31, 1925, by Benson. 

 From Bocas del Toro Wedel sent specimens to the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology taken between March 21 and 30, 1928, at 

 elevations of 450 to 1,000 meters, on the Boquete trail, back of the 

 Laguna de Chiriqui. Another was secured near Cricamola on 

 February 15 and one at Guabo on April 10 (Peters, Bull. Mus. Comp. 

 Zool., vol. 71, 1931, p. 297). There are two others in the Conover 

 Collection of the Chicago Natural History Museum from Cricamola 

 taken by Wedel on September 7, 1936, and October 25, 1937. Benson 

 and Gaffney secured a pair at Guaval, on the Rio Calovevora in 

 Caribbean Veraguas which Griscom described as a distinct race 

 color atus. This, however, proves not to differ from O. e. melanotis. 



Goldman on March 22 and 25, 1911, collected 4 females at 750 

 meters near the head of the Rio Pacora on Cerro Azul, another on 

 June 8 at 600 meters on Cerro Bruja, Colon, and a male on April 

 24, 1912 at 1,600 meters on Cerro Pirre in Darien. Hasso von Wedel 

 on February 1, 1933, shot a male at Puerto Obaldia, San Bias that 

 came to the Conover collection. The latest report of the species is an 

 adult male, prepared by C. O. Handley, Jr., that was captured by a 

 dog beside a forest trail on Cerro Azul, January 27, 1958. 



Goldman left a manuscript note in which he described their scratch- 

 ings as similar to those of other gallinaceous birds and says that the 

 birds he collected were visible for a few seconds only as they ran 

 with outstretched necks beneath the undergrowth. On Cerro Bruja 

 one allowed him to approach closely. The only other observation on 

 habits that I have seen is that of C. W. Richmond (Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus., vol. 16, 1893, p. 524) on the Rio Escondido, eastern Nicaragua, 

 where a flock of a dozen "flew into surrounding trees and afterward 

 off into the woods, two or three at a time." The indication is that 

 birds of this species may be less wary than their close relatives. 



