414 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



Description. — Length, 260 to 275 mm. Sexes alike; above mainly 

 black, with a buff line from the bill down the center of the crown, 

 and another on either side over the eye; feathers of hindneck bor- 

 dered with cinnamon-buff; back with broad lines of dark buff, and a 

 few bars of cinnamon-buff; wings and wing coverts fuscous, barred 

 with buffy white, the outer web of the outer primary edged with white 

 or cinnamon-buff ; rump and upper tail coverts barred with cinnamon- 

 buff ; outer tail feathers white, or buffy white, barred with black, with 

 the central pairs black, tipped with cinnamon, barred narrowly with 

 black; under surface white, with foreneck and upper breast mottled 

 with buffy brown and fuscous ; under wing coverts, sides, and flanks 

 barred with brownish black; under tail coverts buff, barred with 

 black. 



Measurements (from Ridgway, I.e., p. 173). — Males, wing 121-130 

 (127.1), tail 52-63 (57.1), exposed culmen 57.5-67.5 (62.9), tarsus 

 27.5-32 (30.4) mm. 



Females, wing 117.5-135 (125.2), tail 50-58.5 (54.5), exposed cul- 

 men 58.5-73.5 (65.4), tarsus 28-33.5 (30.8) mm. 



Migrant from the north. Common locally in boggy ground from 

 the lowlands to high mountain slopes : October to April ; most abun- 

 dant in southward migration from late October to early December. 



These are birds of wet meadows, partly dry cienagas, and other 

 marshy ground where they remain concealed until approached and 

 then rise suddenly, utter a harsh call, and dart away in swift zigzag 

 flight. It is seldom that one is seen before it flies. They are most 

 abundant in swampy lands in the savannas, particularly so east of the 

 Rio Pacora, where flights of hundreds come sometimes during No- 

 vember. Most are in passage to points farther south so that only a 

 small number remain after December. The northward flight, which 

 is relatively small, comes during March and early April. 



The earliest record for fall is that of Jewel (Auk, 1913, p. 425) 

 for October 7, 1911, near Gatun. T. A. Imhof (manuscript notes) 

 recorded one near Chorrera on October 10, 1942, and collectors for 

 the Malaria Control Service shot one near Pacora on October 16, 1953. 

 Griscom (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 72, 1932, p. 322) Hsted one 

 taken October 25, 1929, at Perme, in the San Bias. Loftin (Carib. 

 Journ. Sci., 1963, p. 65) caught two in a mist net near Almirante, 

 November 10-11, 1962. 



I have found them regularly during February and March near El 

 Volcan, and they come also to the mountain slopes around Boquete. 

 I have one female caught at night by the light of a head lamp at La 



