308 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 2 



THALURANIA FURCATA VENUSTA (Gould) 



Trochilus (Thalurania) venusta Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, pt. 18, 1850 

 (February 28, 1851), p. 163. (Volcan de Chiriqui, Chiriqui, Panama.) 



Characters. — Adult male, with the forecrown brilliant violet-blue; 

 violet-blue area of back usually more extensive. Female, somewhat 

 paler gray on lower surface. 



An adult male, taken at the Candelaria Hydrographic Station, 

 Panama, March 11, 1961, had the iris wood brown; bill black ; tarsus 

 and toes fuscous ; claws black. 



Measurements. — Males (15 from western and central Panama), 

 wing 51.0-55.0 (53.1), tail 38.4-45.0 (41.2), culmen from base 19.1- 

 24.2 (20.5) mm. 



Females (10 from western and central Panama), wing 48.0-49.7 

 (48.6), tail 27.4-30.2 (28.7), culmen from base 20.0-22.4 (21.0) mm. 



Resident. Locally common in forested areas in the Tropical and 

 lower Subtropical Zones. Recorded from Chiriqui, Veraguas, Pan- 

 ama, Bocas del Toro, the Caribbean slope of Code, Colon, and the 

 lower Chagres Valley in the Canal Zone and adjacent eastern Province 

 of Panama (Candelaria Hydrographic Station, Rio Pequeni). 



This form was named from a specimen collected by Warscewicz on 

 the Volcan de Chiriqui, probably in the area of the lower hills. I 

 found it in small numbers at 1,200 to 1,300 meters on Cerro Pando, 

 and at Santa Clara toward the Costa Rican boundary. Brown secured 

 it at Divala in the lowlands. In Veraguas, Arce collected it at Santa 

 Fe, Chitra, and Castillo, with records also for Santiago. It has not 

 been reported as yet in the hills on the Pacific side of Code, but 

 should be found there. It is common on Cerro Campana above 850 

 meters, and I collected it also in the Cerro Azul, and in the hills 

 north of Chepo near the Rio Mamoni. On the Caribbean side, a few 

 have been found in the forests above Bahia Almirante, and others near 

 Bocas del Toro. I secured them also along the Rio Indio at Chilar in 

 western Colon, and higher up near El Uracillo, where this stream 

 comes out of the interior hills, in northern Code. In the lower Chagres 

 Valley they are common on Barro Colorado Island. On March 3, 

 1961, I caught 1 in a mist net, and on March 6 shot another, a male, 

 at the Candelaria Hydrographic Station on the lower Rio Pequeni. 

 My most eastern records are near the Rio Mamoni above Chepo. 



On Barro Colorado Island they may appear about flowering shrubs 

 in the clearing at the laboratory at dawn when the light is still so dim 

 that it is barely possible to see them. In 1935 Skutch recorded nests 



