FAMILY FORMICARIIDAE I99 



through the southern Canal Zone to the lower Rio Bayano on the 

 Pacific slope, and near the Rio Chagres (Juan Mina, Barro Colorado 

 Island) on the Caribbean side. 



Salvin and Godman (Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, vol. 2, 1892, p. 229) 

 cite it from farther west, as "Veraguas (Arce)," and Sclater (Cat. 

 Birds Brit. Mus., vol. XV, 1890, p. 279) lists male and female from 

 the old Salvin-Goldman collection from "Veragua (Arce)." These are 

 questionable records, that may be based on specimens taken by Arce 

 near Chepo as the species has no other report to the west of El 

 Valle, Code, cited above. In 1951 I found them in dry forest on 

 the Rio Camaron near La Campana at the southern base of Cerro 

 Campana, and on March 29, secured one at the edge of a clearing at 

 760 meters on Cerro La India Dormida at El Valle, Code. 



These birds range in pairs in thickets and open forests, always 

 on or near the ground, where in general appearance and action they 

 suggest wrens. Though they may be detected by their active move- 

 ments, usually attention is drawn to them through their calls. The 

 song is a loud burst, that increases in rapidity as its syllables are 

 repeated, and then terminates abruptly. It bears so strong a re- 

 semblance to that of the Buff-rumped Warbler, also a terrestrial 

 species, that it may be confused with that bird. When seen clearly 

 the unusual length of the leg for so small a bird may attract attention. 

 As they walk quickly with steadily twitching tail occasionally they 

 pause to turn over a fallen leaf. Their food is insects. In a well- 

 filled stomach from a bird taken by Goldman at the old Lion Hill 

 locality, I found a pentatomid bug, remains of earwigs, and seven ants 

 of two species. Ants appear to be a regular source of food. 



The only available information on nesting is from the closely allied 

 Myrmeciza longipes longipcs on Trinidad. A set of two eggs that I 

 have examined in the British Museum (Natural History) collected 

 by Sir Charles Belcher, April 10, 1935, have the form subelliptical. 

 In color, they are faintly buffy white, blotched and spotted with 

 cinnamon to lilac-gray, mainly about the larger end. They measure 

 23.1 X 16.6 and 23.2 X 17.2 mm. Another set of two from the same 

 locality, taken March 8, 1936, are similar in form, slightly more 

 heavily spotted, and measure 23.3x17.9 and 22.2x17.3 mm. The 

 collector's notes describe the nests as an "open, shallow saucer of 

 pliable twigs and rootlets, lined with black hairlike fibers like horse 

 hair in appearance." They were located from 1.2 to 1.8 meters from 

 the ground, one in the crown of a fern, the other in an aroid. 



Though the race panamcnsis is not recorded in eastern Panama in 



