FAMILY FURNARIIDAE IO9 



Characters. — Definitely reddish brown above ; under surface more 

 grayish brown. 



A male, taken at Puerto Armuelles, Chiriqui, February 1, 1966, 

 had the iris wood brown ; maxilla and tip of mandible dusky neutral 

 gray; base of mandibular rami pale wood brown; rest of mandible 

 pale grayish white ; tarsus and toes bluish neutral gray ; claws dusky 

 neutral gray. 



A female, from La Jagua, eastern Province of Panama, January 13, 

 1962, had the iris dark brown ; maxilla dull black ; tip and cutting edge 

 of mandible dark neutral gray ; rest of mandible dull grayish white ; 

 tarsus and toes dark neutral gray ; claws dusky neutral gray. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Chiriqui, Veraguas, Canal Zone, 

 and eastern Province of Panama), wing 62.7-65.2 (63.8), tail 47.0- 

 51.0 (48.9), culmen from base 14.0-14.8 (14.2), tarsus 14.3-14.9 

 (14.6) mm. 



Females (10 from Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro, Veraguas, Canal Zone, 

 and eastern Province of Panama), wing 59.4-62.6 (60.8), tail 45.3- 

 46.9 (45.9), culmen from base 13.1-14.5 (14.0), tarsus 13.8-14.6 

 (14.2) mm. 



Weight, 5, 10 grams. Fort Sherman, Canal Zone (G. V. N. Powell). 



Resident. Common in lowland forests, often also in trees bordering 

 streams in the savannas, from the Costa Rican boundary east to 

 the Rio Chiman on the Pacific slope, and to western San Bias 

 (Mandinga) on the Caribbean side; to 1380 meters on the slopes of 

 the mountains in Chiriqui. 



Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif. no. 35, 1969, pp. 317-326) in south- 

 western Costa Rica found birds of this race feeding on insects and 

 their larvae, including ants, which by vigorous hammering they peck 

 out of bits of sticks or vines. They sleep singly in holes in dead 

 tree trunks, which they enter quickly at dusk and leave as hastily at 

 dawn. The nest hole is excavated by the pair, working singly, in the 

 soft wood of slender decaying trunks or branches. The finished 

 cavity, lined with soft vegetable fibers, holds two white eggs. Addi- 

 tional nest material is added as the two share in incubation. Since 

 the eggs found were not easily accessible, no measurements were 

 taken. The young at hatching are sparsely covered with gray down. 



XENOPS MINUTUS LITTORALIS Sclater 



Xenops littoralis P. L. Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1861 (February 1, 

 1862), p. 379. ( Esmeraldas, Ecuador.) 



