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BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA — PART 3 



margined indistinctly with dull brown ; flanks and under tail coverts 

 more heavily marked with russet-brown, changing on abdomen to 

 cinnamon-bufif. 



Immature, feathers of dorsal surface tipped with buffy brown to 

 dull brown, in varying amount ; wing coverts, and in some the 

 secondaries and inner primaries, with a terminal spot of this color; 

 under surface buff to dull cinnamon-buff, tipped and barred indis- 



FiGURE 22. — Silvery-fronted tapaculo, tapaculo plateado, Scytalopus 

 argentifrons, male. 



tinctly with dull black, the feathers blackish slate basally, the amount 

 and depth of shade in the buff markings varying widely. 



Because of its retiring habits and remote mountain haunts, this 

 tapaculo was not found by Arce and other early naturalists who 

 travelled in Panama and Costa Rica. The first known specimen, the 

 type of the present species, was collected by Anastasio Alfaro on 

 Volcan de Irazu, Costa Rica, on April 23, 1891. Following this, 

 the bird was reported in western Chiriqui, where Bangs (Proc. New 

 England Zool. Club, vol. 3, 1902, p. 48) recorded a series taken by 

 W. W.Brown, Jr., in 1901. 



