FAMILY RHINOCRYPTIDAE 257 



SCYTALOPUS ARGENTIFRONS ARGENTIFRONS Ridgway 



Scytalopus argentifrons Ridgway, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 14, October 31, 

 1891, p. 475. (Volcan de Irazu, Costa Rica.) 



Characters. — Under surface grayer on breast and foreneck ; adult 

 male with forecrown paler gray, this color extending posteriorly on 

 either side as a broad superciliary line ; female with these head mark- 

 ings reduced, in some nearly absent. 



An adult male, taken at 2135 meters beyond Bajo Grande, back of 

 Cerro Punta, Chiriqui, March 4, 1955, had the iris brown; bill black; 

 tarsus, toes, and claws fuscous. In an immature female, collected 

 on the west face of Volcan Baru, at 2725 meters, March 2, 1965, 

 the iris was dark brown ; maxilla black ; mandible fuscous-brown, with 

 the lower margin of the mandibular rami brownish white ; front of 

 the tarsus mouse brown ; back of tarsus and toes fuscous-brown ; 

 claws dark brownish neutral gray. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from western Chiriqui), wing 49.2- 

 55.8 (51.5), tail 36.2-42.9 (39.2, average of 9), culmen from base 

 12.6-13.9 (13.2, average of 9), tarsus 19.4-20.5 (20.1) mm. 



Females (8 from western Chiriqui), wing 50.3-53.0 (51.2), tail 

 35.7-41.2 (37.4), culmen from base 12.2-13.4 (12.7), tarsus 18.4- 

 20.0 (19.2) mm. 



Resident. Found locally in the Subtropical and Temperate zones 

 at 1525-2280 meters on the mountain slopes of western Chiriqui. 



As stated above, the first published record for Panama is that of 

 Bangs (cit. supra) who recorded 7 specimens collected between 

 February and May 1901 by W. W. Brown, Jr., on the eastern face 

 of the Chiriqui volcano. It is interesting to note that there is an 

 earlier specimen in the British Museum (Natural History), cataloged 

 on July 10, 1898, with the data "Purch. of Mr. J. Watson." H. J. 

 Watson, a former ship captain, and an early settler in the Boquete 

 area, interested in natural history, collected mammals and birds that 

 he sent to the British Museum. He assisted Brown in his work for 

 Bangs, especially through permission that he gave for work on his 

 extensive plantations. 



The series collected by Monniche in the mountain forests above 

 Boquete, recorded by Blake (Fieldiana: Zool., vol. 36, 1958, p. 533), 

 available on loan, have been of much assistance in the present studies. 

 C. Brooke Worth (Bird-Lore, 1939, p. 280), who saw this species 

 on Monniche's Finca Lerida, wrote of it that this "small, wrenlike 

 bird . . . lived in very dense thickets. ... In color it was a dark 



