l66 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 2 



ends of toes light neutral gray ; claws neutral gray. Another female 

 from Cerro Pirre, Darien, taken February 2, 1961, had the iris light 

 orange-yellow ; bill light greenish yellow ; bare scutes on end of toes 

 light brownish gray centrally, bordered with dull Marguerite yellow ; 

 claws dusky neutral gray. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Panama), wing 316-333 (324.6), 

 tail 175-193 (1817), oilmen from cere 26.2-29.2 (27.9) mm. 



Females (7 from Panama), wing 332-344 (338.8), tail 179-197 

 (186.5), culmen from cere 28.0-31.4 (29.4) mm. 



Resident. Found locally in forested areas throughout the lowlands, 

 ranging upward in Darien to 650 meters in mountain areas. 



Spectacled owls are strong, heavy-bodied birds, known mainly 

 from their gruff-voiced calls heard at night from the forests. While 

 nowhere common, they are widely distributed wherever there is suffi- 

 cient tree cover to afford them shelter. They are found regularly in 

 swampy woodlands invaded by tides, and in the savannas range in 

 the bands of woodland along the streams. Though seen often alone, 

 it is common to encounter male and female near one another outside 

 the mating season. Rarely these owls are active on overcast days, 

 when I have seen them near the ground by shaded quebradas, or when 

 there was fog have heard them calling. It is usual in daytime to find 

 them on heavily shaded perches immediately below the high tree 

 crown. In night hunting occasionally they have been attracted when 

 I was making squeaking sounds to call smaller owls, their eyes glowing 

 dull red in the beam of the electric torch. Their call is deep in sound, 

 uttered abruptly, bu hu hu, sometimes with the addition of a fourth 

 syllable. This is easily imitated, and often the owl may reply. 



Locally in Costa Rica they are called olopopo. 



Their food includes small mammals, birds, and lizards. Chapman 

 (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 58, 1928, p. 151) records their 

 raids on the nests of Wagler's oropendola on Barro Colorado Island. 

 One shot at night on Cerro Tacarcuna had the stomach crammed with 

 a small arboreal rat (Orysomys bicolor), the forelegs entire of a 

 larger species (Tylomys sp.), a lizard, and a large orthopteran. 



I have no report on the nesting of this owl in Panama. Belcher and 

 Smooker (Ibis, 1936, p. 18) record a nest of the closely allied race 

 trinitatis in Trinidad, found April 3, 1931, placed in a hollow in a tree 

 about 9 meters from the ground. The 2 eggs measured 50.4x42.7 

 and 50x42.5 mm. They are described as "rounded ovals, white, fairly 

 glossy, with very fine granulations." 



