460 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 3 



Description. — Length 120-135 mm. Tenth (outermost) primary 

 shorter than the sixth. Adult (sexes alike), upper surface plain olive, 

 darker, often blackish, on the crown ; rump and upper tail coverts 

 brownish ; a concealed tuft of white feathers on either side of rump ; 

 wings dusky; middle and greater coverts tipped with grayish white 

 to brownish gray, secondaries edged distally with white to brownish 

 gray ; lores white to grayish white (the paler color often indistinct) ; 

 a narrow line of white around eye ; side of head and of neck, breast, 

 and upper abdomen grayish olive ; in some this color confluent across 

 the breast ; chin and throat white with the individual feathers pale 

 gray centrally ; lower breast and abdomen, and in some the central 

 area of the breast, white to yellowish white ; under tail coverts pale 

 brown, in some edged with white ; axillars and under tail coverts 

 brownish white. 



Juvenile, browner above, with feathers edged with buff to cinna- 

 mon-buff ; wing coverts tipped widely with pale cinnamon-buff ; chin 

 brown, lower breast and abdomen whiter ; tips of gray feathers of 

 breast edged indistinctly with dull white. 



This smaller species of wood pewee, resident in Panama, in life 

 appears similar to the migrants and so will rarely be identified as 

 a separate kind. It is found through the Tropical Zone except in 

 the savanna areas. Seen closely it may appear smaller, more slender, 

 and with a small area of grayish white on the lores. Slud (Bull. Amer. 

 Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 128, 1964, p. 253) records that it may be 

 known by "The almost invariable shaking of the tail on its return 

 to a perch" after a sally to secure a passing insect on the wing. In 

 the hand, it is readily identified from its congeners by the tenth outer- 

 most primary being shorter than the sixth, and by its smaller measure- 

 ments. The species as a whole ranges in tropical America from 

 southern Mexico to northern Argentina. Two races are found in 

 Panama. 



CONTOPUS CINEREUS BRACHYTARSUS (Sclater) 



Empidonax hrachytarsus P. L. Sclater, Ibis, ser. 1, vol. 1, no. 4, October 1859, 

 p. 441. (Cordoba, Veracruz, Mexico.) 



Characters. — Similar in general to the migrant wood pewees of the 

 north that are found in the Isthmus in passage to and from their 

 winter homes in northern South America ; somewhat smaller and 

 more slender ; may be identified when seen clearly by the grayish white 

 lores. This race is definitely paler on back and breast than the one 

 found on Isla Coiba. 



