FAMILY FORMICARIIDAE I4I 



latter with two narrow white bars ; crown brownish black with 

 narrow shaft lines of white ; chin and upper throat white with small 

 basal spots of slaty black ; foreneck dull grayish brown, breast darker 

 dull brown, both with narrow shaft lines of dull white ; lower breast, 

 abdomen, and sides dull grayish brown, spotted indistinctly with dull 

 white ; under tail coverts dull brown, barred indistinctly with buff ; 

 wings and tail as in adult. 



A male collected at Puerto Armuelles, Chiriqui, January 31, 1966, 

 had the iris dark mouse brown ; bill black ; tarsus, toes, and claws dark 

 neutral gray. Other males have had the bill black, except for the base 

 of the gonys which was neutral gray. 



A female from Puerto Armuelles taken February 2, 1966, had the 

 iris dark mouse brown ; maxilla and tip of mandible black, rest of 

 mandible dark neutral gray; tarsus, toes, and claws bluish neutral 

 gray. The under surfaces of the toes in both sexes are dull yellowish. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Chiriqui, Veraguas, and Los 

 Santos), wing 72.4-74.9 (73.8), tail 65.1-68.5 (66.2), culmen from 

 base 22.0-24.1 (23.0), tarsus 22.5-23.3 (22.7) mm. 



Females (10 from Chiriqui, Veraguas, and Los Santos), wing 

 69.2-72.6 (71.1), tail 62.9-65.8 (64.2), culmen from base 21.6- 

 24.0 (22.5), tarsus 22.4-23.6 (23.2) mm. 



Resident. Common in forested areas in the tropical lowlands from 

 western Chiriqui (including the Burica Peninsula) east through 

 southern Veraguas to the western side and southern end of the 

 Azuero Peninsula, continuing on the eastern side north of Punta 

 Mala to the valley of the Rio Pedasi. in the Province of Los Santos. 



These are birds of the undergrowth in gallery forest, found near 

 the coast also in the higher stands of mangroves where there are 

 tangled lower shrubs at ground level, in areas that may be dry during 

 part of the year. 



Like related species of the genus they range in pairs that, where 

 the forest has been undisturbed, may be tame. The song, given 

 by both male and female, is generally similar to that of the Barred 

 Ant-shrike, but is louder in its utterance, somewhat more emphatic. 

 It ends abruptly as in the other species, but without the nasal cadence 

 heard from that bird. They also have a single call repeated regularly, 

 unlike other sounds that I have heard from their congeners. 



According to Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif., no. 35, 1969, pp. 181-190) 

 the nest of this species is a "roomy, open cup suspended by its rim 

 from a horizontal fork at the end of a slender branch." It is woven 

 by male and female of dark-colored rootlets and other filaments. 



