208 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA — PART 3 



Comp. Zool., vol. 72, 1932, p. 345) received several taken by H. 

 von Wedel between 1929 and 1931 at Perme, Ranchon, and Puerto 

 Obaldia in eastern Comarca de San Bias. There is one record of a 

 female collected on the Rio Calovevora, Veraguas, by Benson and 

 Gaffney, September 6, 1926. Griscom's inclusion of "Almirante" 

 in the occurrence of this bird in his final list of the birds of Panama 

 (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 78, 1935, p. 335) apparently was in 

 error as I have seen no record for Bocas del Toro. In my own 

 work we found them first near Jaque, Darien, on March 31 and 

 April 4, 1946. On April 7, 1949, I secured one near Chepo, and 

 March 8, 1951, collected two males and a female at 850 meters on 

 Cerro Campana, in the Province of Panama. In the lower levels of 

 Cerro Tacarcuna, Darien, at the old village site at 575 meters on the 

 Rio Tacarcuna on March 10, 1964, we shot one, and captured 

 another in a mist net. From the higher elevation of 850 meters at 

 La Laguna, Dr. Pedro Galindo has given me a male taken July 7, 

 1963. At Armila in the lowlands of San Bias on March 4, 1963, I 

 collected one from a group of other small birds over a moving swarm 

 of ants. 



In general skulking habits and movement they suggest the common 

 Chestnut-backed Ant-bird, Myrmecisa exsul, though I did not 

 identify any calls from them, sounds which usually attract attention 

 in the related bird. Those that I have examined in the flesh did not 

 have the skin beneath the feathers on the side of the head tinged blue 

 as is the case in the other species. 



The only report of the eggs is cited with reservation as to its 

 authenticity by Meise (in Schonwetter, Handb. Ool., pt. 14, 1967, 

 pp. 41, 52) of specimens received from Guayaquil. These have been 

 attributed to the race Myrmecisa laemosticta nigricauda, a subspecies 

 found from southwestern Colombia south into western Ecuador, 

 marked by black tail, with the white spotting on the throat in the 

 female reduced in amount. The eggs mentioned are described by 

 Dr. Meise as heavily pigmented, with a rosy white ground color, and 

 reddish brown to dark purple lines and spots in varying amount. With 

 one there was a parasite egg attributed to the cuckoo Dromococcyx 

 pavoninns. The measurements listed as 21.5-24.4x15.2-16.8 mm, 

 show greater variation in size than usual in this group, so that more 

 than one species may be involved. 



Early studies of this species in Panama listed the few specimens 

 known under two subspecies, M. I. laemosticta for the Veraguas 

 specimen, and palliata, described by Todd from northern Colombia, 



