FAMILY TROCHILIDAE 269 



Females (8 from Panama), wing 58.6-64.2 (60.8), tail 60.1-68.8 

 (64.7), culmen from base 38.4-40.8 (39.2) mm. 



Resident. Found locally in the lowlands on the Pacific slope in 

 Chiriqui (Puerto Armuelles, Divala, Bugaba, San Felix), and Vera- 

 guas (Puerto Vidal, Paracote) ; common on the Caribbean slope in 

 Bocas del Toro (Changuinola, Almirante), northern Code (El 

 Uracillo), and western Colon (along the Rio Indio), the lower Cha- 

 gres Valley in the Canal Zone (Juan Mina, Barro Colorado Island, 

 Gatun), above Madden Lake on the Rio Pequeni (Candelaria Hydro- 

 graphic Station) and the Rio Boqueron (Peluca Hydrographic Sta- 

 tion), and in the eastern sector of Colon (Portobelo). 



Specimens from Bocas del Toro, northern Code, and western 

 Colon are slightly darker above so that Zimmer (loc. cit., p. 21) has 

 listed them as the race cassinii. I have included them in cephalus as 

 those that I have seen are not quite as dark as typical cassinii, while 

 they agree in larger size, especially in longer tail, with the western 

 population, cephalus. 



Skutch (Auk, 1964, pp. 8-9) describes the nests of this race in 

 Costa Rica as fastened beneath a pendant leaf of the small, spiny- 

 trunked palms common in forest undergrowth. The cup to hold the 

 eggs was located in the broad top attached closely against the leaf. 

 Below, the structure tapered to end in a "thin, dangling tail, which 

 hung free below the tip of the palm frond." One that he examined was 

 "composed of fine rootlets, the delicate branched stems of mosses and 

 liverworts, fibers of various kinds, and similar materials. Most of the 

 components were stiff and wiry, making it fairly rigid and harsh to 

 the touch. Unlike the nests of most hummingbirds, it contained no soft 

 downy stuff." Materials of the nest were bound by cobweb, which was 

 wound around the leaf to give support. Two nests measured 17.5 to 

 20 cm. long, by 5 cm. wide at the top. All were in deep shade in dense 

 forest, placed from lh to 2\ meters from the ground. Two eggs in 1 

 set each measured 15.9x9.5 mm. 



In the Canal Zone the nesting season extends from May to August. 



This race is found beyond Panama through Costa Rica and Nica- 

 ragua to southern Honduras. 



Boucard described Phaethornis panamensis, listed above as a 

 synonym of cephalus, from "Panama and Veragua, Colombia," and re- 

 marked in his brief discussion that "I discovered this species at Pan- 

 ama, January 1877. I have also some specimens collected at Agua 

 Dulce, Veragua." The wing and tail measurements that he lists agree 

 with those of cephalus. 



