FAMILY FORMICARIIDAE 



173 



Caribbean slope throughout from western Bocas del Toro to eastern 

 San Bias (Puerto Obaldia). 



The most western record on the Pacific slope, a single female, was 

 collected March 12, 1951, in high forest at 850 meters on the south 

 face of Cerro Campana. Others taken in this same woodland during 

 the week of March 10 to 20 were all Myrmotherula schisticolor. 

 From Cerro Azul, Chepo, and the Rio Chiman eastward through 



Figure 16. — Black ant-wren, hormiguerito negro, Myrmotherula axillaris 



albigxila. 



Darien M. a. albigula was common. It was recorded by Barbour and 

 Brooks in 1922 in numbers from Garachine and the lower Sanibu 

 Valley. In my own field studies I found it distributed through the 

 Chucunaque-Tuira drainage, including the lower slopes of Cerro 

 Pirre and Cerro Tacarcuna. 



Where they are common these ant-wrens range in small flocks that 

 move actively with low chattering calls in scattered company through 

 the top of the undergrowth and in the lower branches of the trees. In 

 these small groups, frequently they flit the wings quickly, an action 



