17O BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 2 



maxilla and a wide line along the cutting edge yellow ; rest light green- 

 ish yellow ; tip of mandible dull yellow ; rest light dull brown ; feet 

 bright yellow ; base of claws yellow, tips black. 



Measurements. — Males (4 from Costa Rica and Panama), wing 

 88.1-93.9 (91.2), tail 49.5-62.5 (56.1), culmen from cere 10.7-11.8 

 (11.0), tarsus 18.8-22.0 (20.5) mm. 



Female (1 from Costa Rica), wing 97.1, tail 55.1, culmen from cere 

 1 1.0, tarsus 20.0 mm. 



Resident. Rare ; 1 record from the Subtropical Zone above Cerro 

 Punta, Chiriqui, and 1 from Veraguas, of uncertain locality. 



The first report of this small owl in Panama is based on a male in 

 the U. S. National Museum collected by H. Th. Heyde, labeled 

 "Sona, Veraguas," February 19, 1888. As the species elsewhere is 

 found only in the higher mountains Griscom properly questioned the 

 assignment to this lowland locality. It is probable that it was obtained 

 along the high divide between the Pacific and Caribbean slopes. Other 

 birds taken by Heyde on February 3 and 6, 1 888, come from a locality 

 designated as Cascajal on the headwaters of the Rio Code del Norte. 

 It seems probable that the owl may have been taken in that region. 



On March 19, 1965, above Cerro Punta, Chiriqui, at 2,100 meters 

 as I descended the old trail that leads around the mountain slopes to 

 Boquete I saw a small, heavy-bodied bird fly a few meters from a leafy 

 tree to a woodpecker hole in a dead stub that stood at the open border 

 of a pasture. As I watched, the bird returned to the tree, and then 

 came once more and entered the hole. As I did not recognize it 

 from these brief glimpses I climbed over a tangle of logs and rapped 

 with my machete on the trunk. The bird then flew out to an open 

 perch where I shot it. 



Elsewhere this race is known from a few records in the mountains 

 of Costa Rica. Slud (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 128, 1964, 

 p. 133) found it on two occasions in tangled forest where it moved 

 alertly, evidently an aggressive hunter. Like other species of the genus 

 it was active by day. 



The Phelps, father and son, in a recent review of jardinii (Proc. 

 Biol. Soc. Washington, 1951, p. 66), have placed these birds as geo- 

 graphic races of Glaucidium brasilianum since populations of these 

 two groups have not been encountered in the same range. The two are 

 similar in general pattern, except that dark phase jardinii has the 

 crown markings in the form of definite spots, while in brasilianum 

 these markings are streaks. In rufous phase however both groups are 

 streaked. Occasional birds in both groups have crown markings re- 



