FAMILY TYRANNIDAE 435 



Darien), wing 93.2-98.7 (95.8), tail 75.4-80.4 (78.1), culmen from 

 base 18.1-21.0 (19.7). tarsus 17.8-19.3 (18.6) mm. 



Resident. Uncommon. Recorded on the Pacific slope from western 

 Veraguas (Sona). Cerro Azul, and Chepo east through Chiman and 

 the Rio Maje to eastern Darien, to 900 meters on Cerro Pirre ; on 

 the Caribbean side from the northern Canal Zone, near Pifia, Gamboa, 

 and the lower Chagres Valley, through eastern Provinces of Panama 

 and Colon, and San Bias to the Colombian boundary. 



This forest species was little known until recent years, as Griscom 

 in his list of 1935 reported only six specimens. It was described by 

 Lawrence from one taken by McLeannan, supposed to have come 

 from Lion Hill. Salvin received two (now in the British Museum), 

 collected by Arce in Veraguas, but without definite locality. One in 

 the National Museum collection, taken by Heyde and Lux, April 19, 

 1888, is labeled Sona. Veraguas. Other early specimens in the Have- 

 meyer collection at Yale came from Austin Smith at San Antonio 

 on the lower Rio Bayano, March 19 and 24, 1927. On March 23, 

 1949, I collected one in Bajo Grande on the headwaters of the Rio 

 Pacora in the Cerro Azul, and during April recorded several near 

 Chepo. Near Chiman and on the upper Rio Maje in February and 

 March 1950 a number were recorded. Later I found them locally 

 in the Tuira-Chucunaque Valley, and on the lower slopes of Cerro 

 Tacarcuna. Other observations of the species were at Jaque, and on 

 the lower Rio Jaque in eastern Darien. On the Caribbean side, J. R. 

 Karr has found them rather regularly back of Gamboa, where they 

 have been recorded also by Eisenmann. R. S. Ridgely reported them 

 at Rio Piedras, Colon, in January 1968. West of the Canal, Dennis 

 Sheets recorded Sirystes below Gatun Dam, toward Pifia. In the 

 lower Chagres Valley, March 1957, I found half a dozen on the ridge 

 above the Rio Boqueron near the old manganese mine, and in Febru- 

 ary 1961 took one above the Peluca Hydrographic Station back of 

 Madden Lake. Wedel collected two in eastern San Bias, one at 

 Ranchon (now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology) and one at 

 Puerto Obaldia (in the University of Cincinnati Museum). 



They range in the tops of the tallest trees where, unless they are 

 calling, they may not be noticed. In bebruary and March I saw them 

 occasionally near the ground in clearings, moving about in a spirited 

 manner with raised crests, apparently seeking nesting materials. At 

 our camp at the old Tacarcuna village site on the head of Rio 

 Tacarcuna, Darien, one in such search, came under the thatched roof 

 of our open rancho, where it saw several birds lying on the skinning 



