590 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 3 



Resident. Uncommon, in the upper Tropical and Subtropical Zone 

 forests of Chiriqui and Veraguas. 



The first records were specimens sent by Arce to Salvin (Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. London. 1870. p. 197). taken at Calovevora. Veraguas, in 

 1869, and near Bugaba, western Chiriqui in 1870. The next report is 

 that of Mrs. Davidson (Proc. California Acad. Sci., 1938, p. 259), 

 who collected a male at Rarriles (1350 meters elevation), western 

 Chiriqui, on January 15, 1931. 



Four in the National Museum were secured by collectors for Dr. 

 Frank Hartman near El Volcan, three females, March 8 and 16, 

 1951, and February 15, 1958, and a male at Santa Clara, farther west, 

 on March 2, 1953. On Cerro Pando I collected a female March 1, 

 1954, a male in breeding stage February 12, 1960, and another female 

 on February 22, 1960. These few records from field work here from 

 1951 to 1965 indicate the scarcity of the species. The birds were 

 found singly moving quietly through the higher undergrowth in the 

 forest, at elevations of 1280 to 1675 meters. 



In observations in Costa Rica, Skutch ( Publ. Nuttall Orn. Club, 

 no. 7, 1967, pp. 99-102) found these birds in the mountain forests, 

 sometimes alone, sometimes accompanying moving bands of other 

 forest birds. With these it moved quickly, usually 6 to 10 meters 

 above the ground. The usual calls of two syllables he represented 

 as peet-yer, or a sharper hit-chu. The only nest that he found was a 

 rounded ball made of "fibrous rootlets with a small admixture of 

 light-colored fibers." The tgg chamber was lined with finer, softer 

 materials, and the rounded entrance was protected by a projection 

 above. The nest, suspended from a projection beneath a large tree 

 trunk that had fallen across a small mountain stream, hung free a 

 meter or so above the boulders in the water. It held a small nestling 

 with long tufts of gray down adhering to the tips of growing pin- 

 feathers. 



On the island of Trinidad, Belcher and Smooker (Ibis, 1937, pp. 

 248-249) found nests of a related subspecies now known as Lepto- 

 pogon s. pariae (Phelps and Phelps, Jr.), suspended in dark places 

 beneath boulders or in cavities beneath high banks. Two of the sets 

 of eggs that they collected, now in the British Museum (Natural 

 History), were presented by C. K. Belcher. In both, the eggs, sub- 

 elliptical in form, are plain white without gloss. In one, from near 

 Morne Bleu, collected February 28, 1932, the nest was described as a 

 "ball of moss and fibrous materials, lined with silky vegetable down 

 and a few feathers, 5| inches [140 mm] in diameter with a side 



