50 B1KUS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 2 



Measurements. — Males (8 from Panama), wing 130.0-136.0) 

 (133.6), tail 69.1-74.3 (71.0), culmen 15.7-17.9 (17.4), tarsus 37.6- 



39.7 (38.3) mm. 



Females (5 from Panama), wing 128.8-132.4 (130.4), tail 63.9- 



71.8 (68.7), culmen 16.1-18.4 (17.1), tarsus 35.1-36.6 (35.9) mm. 

 Resident. Local in the Tropical Zone in heavy forest, on the Carib- 

 bean slope from Bocas del Toro (Almirante, Cricamola) east through 

 northern Veraguas, northern Code, Colon (Chilar on the Rio Indio, 

 Portobelo), and the upper Chagres Basin (Rio Boqueron, Rio Pe- 

 queni) to eastern San Bias (Armila, Puerto Obaldia) ; on the Pacific 

 side in Darien in the Rio Tuira Valley (Rio Cupe, Boca de Paya), 

 to 900 meters on Cerro Tacarcuna (La Laguna), and on the Rio 

 Jaque. 



There is no record for the area of the Canal Zone, and the few 

 definite reports for Veraguas are from the Caribbean slope. 



These quail-doves frequent the denser humid forests where they 

 live on the ground like others of this group. When not startled they 

 walk aside when approached, and then remain quiet. As their dark 

 colors blend completely with the shadows of their haunts it is only the 

 slight movements of the head that betray them. More often they flush 

 with a slight rattle of the wings, and fly off in the undergrowth. On 

 the upper Rio Boqueron, where the stream was narrow, on several 

 occasions when I saw them fly across, on the wing they appeared plain 

 gray with a faint flash of the white line on the side of the head. I have 

 not heard them calling, though I have noted that specimens taken in 

 February and March in the upper Chagres Basin were near breeding. 



One taken by E. A. Goldman near Portobelo had the stomach filled 

 with a partly digested mass of seeds, that included one of a Scleria, 

 also a berry, and bits of a beetle. 



The species is found to the north on the Caribbean slope of Costa 

 Rica, and to the south of Panama ranges through western Colombia 

 to northwestern Ecuador. Current treatment considers birds through- 

 out this extensive area as a single group, with considerable variation 

 in depth of color. Part of the supposed color phases that others have 

 noted I believe have been due to specimens in which the sex has not 

 been correctly determined. In the series of 30 modern skins from 

 Panama and Colombia now in the U.S. National Museum, the sup- 

 posed light and dark phases refer to males and females, the latter 

 being darker. Comparisons also indicate that the southern populations 

 may average slightly darker in both sexes, a matter left for determina- 

 tion when more material has been seen. 



