56 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 3 



skin collection), also taken by Arce, is labeled Calobre, Veraguas. 

 Another male in the U. S. National Museum was taken at Chitra by 

 Heyde and Lux on June 22, 1889. 



E. A. Goldman on March 25, 1911, collected a male at 900 meters 

 on Cerro Azul. He secured two others near 1600 meters on Cerro 

 Pirre, Darien in 1912, a male on April 18 and a female on April 29. 

 There are two others in the National Museum from Darien, one of 

 them, a male taken June 7, 1963, by Dr. Pedro Galindo, on Cerro Mali 

 at 1460 meters. Dr. C. O. Handley, Jr., caught a female in a mist 

 net set over a small stream at 1250 meters on Cerro Tacarcuna 

 March 10, 1964. 



One from 760 meters elevation on Cerro Quia taken by Dr. Galindo 

 March 16, 1971, is somewhat darker than two from the higher levels 

 of Cerro Tacarcuna. 



Family FURNARIIDAE : Ovenbirds, Spinetails, and 

 Leaf-scrapers ; Horneros, Canasteros y Hojarasqueros 



This is a family of South American origin, its species mainly of 

 sedentary habit, so that it is reasonable to assume that its spread 

 northward has come since the formation of the isthmian land bridge. 

 Its close allies are found in the woodcreepers, the Dendrocolaptidae, 

 with which some share a climbing habit. Of the 215 living kinds 23 

 are known in Panama, the number decreasing steadily northward 

 through Central America until finally there are only 7 that reach 

 southern Mexico. In South America, while some have adapted to 

 life on open lands in the high mountains and on the treeless plains of 

 Patagonia, those of Panama and northward are, in the main, inhabit- 

 ants of forests and thickets. They seem averse to crossing open 

 water as the only one that has reached any of the offshore islands of 

 the Isthmus is the Rusty-backed Spinetail, Cranioleuca vulpina dissita, 

 a forest inhabitant of Isla Coiba, isolated there with its close relatives 

 far distant in South America. 



The widely known name, "ovenbird," for the family comes from 

 the rounded, enclosed nest of dried mud characteristic of one of the 

 better known species of south-central South America. Others con- 

 struct rounded masses of sticks (often spiny) in some of extraordi- 

 nary bulk for the size of the birds that build them. Some nest in holes 

 in the ground, or in other cavities. Eggs are unmarked, usually white, 

 though in a few species tinted with blue, green, or buff. 



