FAMILY DENDROCOLAPTIDAE 1 5 



The Spanish name cola dc unas, hook or claw-tailed, referring to 

 the pointed curved tips of the central feathers, used by the birds 

 as a brace in climbing, is from Cherrie's account cited above. 



DECONYCHURA LONGICAUDA DARIENENSIS Griscom 



Dechonychura typica darienensis Griscom, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoo!., vol. 69, April 

 1929, p. 172. (Cana, Darien, Panama.) 



Characters. — Faintly more olive, less rufescent, above. 



Measurements. — Males (2 from eastern Province of Panama and 

 Darien), wing 91.4, 95.1; tail 88.0, 90.2; culmen from base 23.7 

 ( 1 only) ; tarsus 20.9, 21 .0 mm. 



Females (8 from eastern Province of Panama, Canal Zone, Darien, 

 and northwestern Colombia), wing 84.0-88.7 (85.7), tail 80.9-87.6 

 (83.7). culmen from base 20.0-22.0 (21.2), tarsus 20.2-21.8 

 (21.1) mm. 



Resident. Rare ; found mainly in lowland forests ; recorded on the 

 Pacific slope from western Province of Panama (at 850 meters on 

 Cerro Campana), east along the south base of Cerro Azul, the lower 

 Rio Bayano (Puerto San Antonio), and near Chiman (Rio Corotu) 

 to Darien (Santa Fe, Cana) ; on the Caribbean side in the Canal 

 Zone (Gamboa, Lion Hill), and San Bias (Mandinga). 



This bird, little known in Panama, in appearance and action is 

 much like the more common Olivaceous Woodcreeper, but differs de- 

 cidedly in its much darker color. On the few occasions that I have 

 seen it, in heavy stands of forest, the bird climbed upward on tree 

 trunks, in action typical of other members of the family. On Cerro 

 Campana, March 5. 1951, I took one in heavy forest on the southern 

 face below the summit. From the northern Canal Zone there is an 

 ancient specimen collected at Lion Hill about 1865 by McLeannan, 

 and received by the Smithsonian the following year in a collection 

 that came from Thomas Rhodes. While this is the earliest record for 

 the Republic it was not noted in literature until listed by Ridgway 

 (U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 50, pt. 5, 1911, p. 286). Earlier, from its poor 

 condition as a specimen, it seems to have been identified by Sclater 

 and Lawrence as Xiphorhynchns guttatus, a much larger species. 

 Another record is one in the American Museum of Natural History 

 from Gamboa, collected January 23, 1964, by F. L. Chapman and 

 E. Tyson. A. P. Smith secured three at Puerto San Antonio on the 

 lower Rio Bayano in February, 1927. I collected one on the Rio 

 Corotu, above Chiman, February 20, 1950. In Darien it was taken 

 by R. R. Benson at Cana, on Cerro Pirre, August 6, 1928. Another 



