78 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 3 



Dr. Alexander Skutch (Publ. Nuttall Orn. Club, no. 7, 1967, pp. 

 64-67) gives an interesting account of a nest found in dense forest in 

 southern Costa Rica. The structure "composed of mosses, liverworts, 

 and fine, dark-colored rootlets" was placed in the side of a rotting 

 log that had fallen across a small stream. A rounded entrance tube 

 (figured with the description) led upward to a chamber that held 

 two white eggs, examined through a small mirror illuminated by a 

 flashlight. Both parents were noted entering the nest, so that ap- 

 parently they shared in incubation. When in a few days the eggs 

 disappeared his observations came to an end. He included other 

 data made with Paul Schwartz in Venezuela, in which a related sub- 

 species was found at night sleeping in a nest of similar form. 



Gates and Reid (Cat. Coll. Birds Eggs Brit. Mus., vol. 3, 1903, 

 p. 182) list an egg in the Crowley collection from Colombia that 

 is "closely elliptical in shape and devoid of gloss." Schonwetter 

 (Handb. Ool., pt. 14, 1967, p. 30) gives its measurements as 21.6 X 

 16.8, and of another egg in the Nehrkorn collection as 21. Ox 16.5 mm. 

 These are listed as of the nominate form Prcmnoplex h. hrnnncscens. 



With more extensive series for examination, and a clearer under- 

 standing of the slight variations found in shades of color (including 

 the foxing in older specimens), the variations on which subspecies 

 have been described from \^eraguas and Cerro Campana now are 

 recognized as of only individual nature. The population that ranges 

 in the mountain chain from Costa Rica to terminate at the lowlands 

 in the center of the Isthmus is to be recognized as one geographic 

 race. 



PREMNOPLEX BRUNNESCENS ALBESCENS Griscom 



Prcmnoplex hrnnncscens albescens Griscom, Amer. Mus. Nov. no. 280, Sep- 

 tember 10, 1927, p. 5. (East slope, Cerro Tacarcuna, head of Rio Cuti, Choco, 

 Colombia. ) 



Characters. — Very slightly browner above ; bufif of throat faintly 

 paler. 



A male taken on Cerro Mali, Darien, February 22, 1964, had the 

 iris brown; maxilla and cutting edge of mandible black; rest of 

 mandible very pale pinkish white ; tarsus and toes fuscous ; claws 

 fuscous-black. 



Measurements. — Males (6 from Darien and northwestern Co- 

 lombia), wing 58.2-63.2 (60.0), tail 54.5-64.4 (57.1), culmen from 

 base 15.5-16.2 (15.8, average of 5), tarsus 18.8-19.9 (19.3) mm. 



Females (7 from Darien and northwestern Colombia), wing 56.8- 



