2j8 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA — PART 2 



CHAETURA PELAGICA (Linnaeus): Chimney Swift, 

 Vencejo de Chimenea 



Hirundo pelagica Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 192. (South 

 Carolina.) 



Dark grayish brown above, lighter below, with the throat paler; 

 one of the larger species of the genus. 



Description. — Length 120-134 mm. Adult (sexes alike), sooty 

 olive above, changing to paler grayish brown on rump, upper tail 

 coverts and tail ; wings sooty black ; lores deep black, in some the 

 feathers above this area and over the eye edged very narrowly with 

 grayish white ; upper tail coverts also in some very narrowly edged 

 with grayish white; shafts of rectrices black; throat grayish white to 

 pale gray, merging on lower foreneck with the grayish brown of rest 

 of the lower surface. 



Measurements. — (From Ridgway, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 50, pt. 5, 

 1911, p. 718.) Males, wing 126-133 (129.2), tail 39.5-44 (42.3); 

 exposed culmen 5.5-6 (5.6), tarsus 11.5-12.5 (11.7) mm. 



Females, wing 122.5-133.5 (129.7), tail 40-45.5 (42), exposed 

 culmen 5.5-6 (5.6), tarsus 11-12.5 (11.7) mm. 



Passage migrant from the north. Recorded in southward flight in 

 October, northward in early March, April, and May. 



The chimney swift now is known to pass the northern winter in 

 South America over the forests of the upper Amazon. It was first 

 recorded in Panama by Chapman (Auk, 1931, p. 120) from 2 taken 

 by Benson at Cocoplum on the seaward side of the base of the 

 Valiente Peninsula, on October 28, 1927. There is, however, an 

 earlier specimen in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, collected 

 by von Wedel on the Rio Changuinola, October 24, 1926 (Peters, 

 Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 71, 1936, p. 314). I have 2 other fall 

 records from Almirante, Bocas del Toro, for October 24 and 25, 1962, 

 based on specimens secured by C. A. Quiiiones, of the Gorgas Me- 

 morial Laboratory. Thomas A. Imhof at Fort Clayton, Canal Zone, 

 noted swifts believed to be this species from their notes, (distinctly 

 louder than those of the resident birds of the genus) from October 

 6 to 28, 1942. 



In the flight northward Hasso von Wedel collected 2 on April 24 

 and 25, 1934, at Puerto Obaldia, San Bias, (Rogers, Auk, 1937, p. 

 392). He shot 2 more on April 12 and May 14, 1937, south of the 

 mouth of the Rio Cricamola, Bocas del Toro (Rogers, Auk, 1939, p. 

 82). There is also a report by Chapman (Auk, 1937, p. 392) of flocks 



