FAMILY FURNARIIDAE ol 



In Costa Rica the tufted-cheek seems to be more common, though 

 as yet Httle is known of its Hfe history. M. A. Carriker, Jr., (Ann. 

 Carnegie Mus., vol. 6, 1910, p. 638) wrote that the "tree-creeper is 

 found only at high altitudes, seldom if ever being taken below 

 6,000 feet. ... It is most abundant on the high volcanoes for about 

 1,000 feet below timber-line ... a very noisy bird, always chattering 

 and continually moving about in the trees. It is usually seen in pairs." 

 Slud (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 128, 1964, pp. 204-205) 

 wrote that the "center of abundance of this species is in the upper 

 portion of the montane belt in the central highlands . . . Personally, 

 I found the bird common only at the base of the crater on Turrialba 

 Volcano. Its numbers diminish rapidly with decreasing elevation, and 

 the bird is quite uncommon if not rare in the lower montane belt." 

 He saw them "at the borders of woodland and frequenting the trees 

 ... in the parklike pastures. ... It creeps along the under sides 

 of limbs like a woodhewer, and it specializes in rummaging the masses 

 of epiphytes that help give the montane cloud forests their fantastic 

 appearance." 



Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif. no. 35. 1969, pp. 327-330) in the high 

 mountains of Costa Rica describes the call as "several sharp notes 

 followed by a low clear trill that becomes slower and ends with well- 

 spaced stronger notes." He found a nest about 9 meters from the 

 ground in an old woodpecker hole in a dead trunk so decayed that 

 he was not able to examine the eggs. As incubation progressed the 

 single bird in attendance continued to bring in plant material to add 

 to the nest lining. 



An egg in the British Museum (Natural History) from Irazu, 

 Costa Rica, without other data, is dull white, subelliptical in form, 

 with measurements of 24.8 X 19.3 mm. 



With the larger number of specimens now available than to 

 Griscom in 1924, I find that characters on which he separated birds 

 of eastern Chiriqui and Veraguas as a race, panamensis, are those 

 of individual variation. It seems appropriate to consider the closely 

 similar laivrencii of southern Central America and boissonneautii of 

 northwestern South America as a superspecies, with two species 

 under the two names mentioned. The suggestion of Zimmer (Amer. 

 Mus. Nov., no. 862, 1936, p. 3) that Pseudocolaptes johnsoni Lonn- 

 berg and Rendahl, described from Ecuador (Ark. Zool., vol. 14, 

 1922. p. 69), be listed as a race of lawrencii which it seems to re- 

 semble, may be accepted pending further information. 



