34 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 3 



scrub, and open gallery forest, it was unexpected to find the race 

 of Panama mainly near the inland border of mangrove swamps. 

 Along the lower Rio Santa Maria in northern Herrera, a short 

 distance inland from the sea, they were fairly common in trees stand- 

 ing in open formation in pastures, and at the La Jagua Hunting 

 Club east of Pacora they followed the wooded border of the swamp 

 inland for 3 to 5 kilometers. Elsewhere they were seen only in the 

 mangroves or immediately adjacent. 



In general appearance and habits they resemble Xiphorhynchus 

 guttatus, but at rest are easily identified by the light-colored bill, and 

 in flight they appear more reddish brown. In open areas they climbed 

 about rather quietly on the main trunks and larger limbs. In the 

 mangroves they seemed more active as they came out on the smaller 

 branches to inspect and probe dead or curling leaves. Their rattling 

 calls, heard infrequently, are Hke those I have heard from other 

 members of the species in Colombia and Venezuela. 



No account of the nest and eggs has come to my attention. Meise 

 (in Schonwetter, Hand. Ool., pt. 14, 1967, p. 17), gives measure- 

 ments of eggs of the nominate race picits of northern South America 

 (under the generic name Xiphorhynchus) as 24.0-26.6x19.1- 

 19.9 mm. 



Recently this species has been listed in the genus Xiphorhynchus, 

 which it closely resembles in general aspect. The bill, however, differs 

 in being straight and slender to the tip, and from limited material 

 that I have examined, characters in the skull differ also in detail. 

 The bill character especially appears uniform through the wide 

 range of the species in which it is found. The two should be main- 

 tained as distinct groups. 



XIPHORHYNCHUS GUTTATUS (Lichtenstein) : Buff -throated 

 Woodcreeper, Trepador Comun 



Dendrocolaptes guttatus Lichtenstein, Abhandl. Kon. Akad. Wiss. Berlin for 

 1818-1819, Phys. Kl., 1820, p. 201. (Province of Bahia, Brazil.) 



Distinguished from species with similar color pattern by larger 

 size, stronger, heavier bill, and more robust form. 



Description. — Length 215-235 mm. Male and female alike; crown 

 and nape dull black, each feather with a subterminal tear-shaped 

 spot of pale to deep buff ; back and wing coverts bufify olive to olive- 

 brown, with a few elongate central streaks of bufif, bordered nar- 

 rowly with black ; primaries, secondaries, rump, and tail bright 

 chestnut-brown ; throat dull white to cinnamon-bufif ; rest of under 



