436 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 2 



CHLOROCERYLE AENEA AENEA (Pallas) 



Alcedo aenea Pallas, in Vroeg, Cat., Adumbrat, 1764 p. 1. (Surinam.) 



Characters. — Light bands on secondaries much reduced or absent ; 

 concealed white on back and rump decidedly less in amount. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Panama and northern Choco), 

 wing 54.3-58.2 (55.7), tail 33.7-38.6 (35.4), culmen from base 

 29.5-32.7 (31.0), tarsus 8.8-10.6 (9.6) mm. 



Females (10 from Panama), wing 55.7-60.0 (56.7), tail 33.0- 

 38.6 (35.4), culmen from base 28.8-32.8 (31.3), tarsus 8.4-9.5 

 (8.6) mm. 



Resident. Locally fairly common in the lowlands ; recorded on 

 the Caribbean slope in Bocas del Toro (Zegla, on the Rio Changuinola, 

 and around Laguna de Chiriqui) ; northern Code (El Uracillo) ; 

 Colon (Colon, Portobelo) ; northern Canal Zone (Rio Chagres drain- 

 age from Juan Mina to Barro Colorado Island and Gatun) ; San 

 Bias (Mandinga, Armila) ; on the Pacific side in eastern Darien 

 (Rio Jaque) . Isla Escudo de Veraguas. 



The only Pacific record for Panama is of one that we caught by hand 

 while night hunting at Imamado on the Rio Jaque in Darien. A skin 

 in the U. S. National Museum, received from the dealer Boucard, 

 is labeled "Veragua, Arce" with no further information. It is a 

 specimen of the present race but the data are doubtful, especially 

 since the preparation is not that typical of Arce's skins. It is probable 

 that it is from the Rio Chagres Valley in the Canal Zone. 



Belcher and Smooker (Ibis, 1936, pp. 794-795) describe the nest- 

 ing of this subspecies in Trinidad in holes less than half a meter 

 long dug in the face of a bank, often at some distance from water. 

 The terminal chamber usually is at one side, rather than in a direct 

 line with the entrance. Two nests each contained 4 eggs, the average 

 of one set being 18.8x14.8 mm., and of the other 19.8x15.3 mm. 

 A set of 3 in the British Museum from the Nelson Estate, Trinidad, 

 taken August 28, 1935, (collector not recorded), are white, with 

 smooth glossy surface, subelliptical form, and the following measure- 

 ments : 18.9x15.5, 19.0x15.2 and 20.0x15.6 mm. Hellebrekers 

 (Zool. Med. Rijksm. Nat. Hist. Leiden, vol. 24, 1942, p. 253) gives 

 the average of a set of 4 from Surinam as 18.6x15.6 mm. 



CHLOROCERYLE AENEA STICTOPTERA (Ridgway) 



Ceryle superciliosa stictoptera Ridgway, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 2, 

 April 10, 1884, p. 95. (Sisal, Yucatan.) 



