FAMILY COLUMBIDAE 41 



area dull red ; bare eyelids neutral gray ; bill and cere black, tarsus and 

 toes dull deep red ; claws fuscous. 



Measurements. — Males (2 from Bocas del Toro), wing 130.6-131.4 

 (131.0), tail 87.7-88.2 (87.9), culmen 14.7-15.5 (15.1), tarsus 27.5- 

 29.8 (28.6) mm. 



Females (4 from Bocas del Toro), wing 127.2-134.6 (131.1), tail 

 77.1-82.2 (80.3), culmen 14.3-15.6 (15.2), tarsus 28.2-30.6 (29.7) 

 mm. 



Resident. Recorded in western Bocas del Toro near Changuinola, 

 Almirante, and around the shores of Bahia Almirante to Isla de Colon. 



Gray-headed doves are far from common, as in 2 months in their 

 haunts I recorded them only twice. On February 12 on Jones Creek, 

 back of the bay shore below Isla Pastores I collected 2 females in an 

 open spot in the forest where a mass of heavy creepers supported by 

 a tree made dense shade that had eliminated most of the usual ground 

 cover. Nearby, a male called from a perch near the ground in low, 

 dense rastrojo. The curious, low note, cwuh-h-h-d had a reedy quality 

 that in sound suggested the call of the flatbilled motmot (Electron 

 platyrhynchum) . It was repeated steadily at intervals of a few sec- 

 onds. The previous day I had heard the same note on Roldan Cay and 

 saw the dove, but it eluded me before I was able to identify it. 



Peters described this race of the wide-ranging L. plumbeiceps from 

 2 skins taken by von Wedel near Almirante November 15 (the type), 

 and Changuinola September 30, 1928, and listed another collected by 

 Benson near the town of Bocas del Toro. There is 1 specimen in the 

 collection of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory secured back of 

 Almirante on March 20, 1961. 



As a species Leptotila plumbeiceps ranges from Tamaulipas south 

 through eastern Central America to western Bocas del Toro. In Costa 

 Rica it is found also on the Pacific slope. It appears again in Colom- 

 bia on the western slope of the Western Andes, and in the Cauca 

 Valley. Those who have examined specimens of the Colombian popu- 

 lation have found them so similar to those of Central America that 

 they have considered the two groups identical. Hellmayr and Con- 

 over (Cat. Birds Amer., pt. 1, no. 1, 1942, p. 587), though they ex- 

 amined none of the few known specimens of notius, listed this name 

 in the synonymy of the typical form. However, I find that the skins 

 available differ in distinctly darker color, as they are more olive above 

 and darker on the sides and flanks, with the crown and hindneck darker 

 gray. It is probable that this race is confined to the forests around 

 the Chiriqui Lagoon, and the lowlands of adjacent Costa Rica. 



