l6 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 3 



in the American Museum was collected by G. I. Child at Santa Fe, 

 March 3, 1967. At Mandinga in the western San Bias, I found two 

 on February 1 and 14, 1957. 



The race probably ranges eastward along the San Bias coast, as 

 we have a female taken by M. A. Carriker, Jr., at Necocli on the 

 eastern shore of the Golfo del Darien, in extreme northern Antioquia, 

 Colombia. This is near the southern limit for the race, as a specimen 

 from Villa Artiaga 125 kilometers farther south is the paler race, 

 D. I. minor. 



SITTASOMUS GRISEICAPILLUS (Vieillot) : Olivaceous 

 Woodcreeper, Trepador Aceitunado 



Figure 2 



Dendrocopiis griscicapillus Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., nouv. ed., vol. 26, 

 December 1818, p. 119. (Concepcion, Paraguay.) 



Small, slender-bodied ; forepart of body grayish olive. 



Description. — Length 145-160 mm. Adult (sexes alike), crown 

 and hindneck grayish olive; back and scapulars darker, with a light 

 wash of cinnamon ; rump and upper tail coverts cinnamon-rufous ; 

 alula and wing coverts similar to back but slightly darker ; primaries 

 and secondaries cinnamon-rufous, with the inner webs distally dusky ; 

 tail cinnamon-rufous, with the shafts of each feather pale dull red; 

 side of head, foreneck, breast, and bend of wing light grayish olive; 

 abdomen slightly paler ; under tail coverts cinnamon ; under wing 

 coverts and axillars buff to buffy white ; band across inner webs of 

 primaries, except outermost, and secondaries pale buff. 



The Olivaceous Woodcreeper is typical of its family in its method 

 of climbing steadily on the trunks and branches of trees, differing 

 from the larger kinds found in Panama in its less robust, slender 

 form, accentuated by the proportionately elongated tail. In Panama 

 it is a bird of the more open woodlands, mainly of the Pacific slope. 

 As a species it has an extensive distribution from southern Mexico 

 to Bolivia, northern Argentina, and southern Brazil. In this vast 

 area it displays much variation in depth of color, and to lesser degree 

 in form. Those of Panama differ mainly from the populations found 

 from Mexico to Costa Rica in slightly larger, heavier bill. Two 

 geographic races are recognized in the Republic. 



Little is on record as to the life history. Alexander Skutch (Publ. 

 Nuttall Orn. Club, no. 7, 1967, pp. 61-62), near Canas Gordas, 

 Costa Rica, on March 25, 1964, saw one carry a few dead leaves 

 "into a wide opening about 40 feet up in the side of a tall dead trunk 



