486 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA — PART 2 



have held fragments of orthoptera, caterpillars, earwigs, small beetles, 

 membracids, and spiders. 



The species was reported first from Panama in the early collections 

 made by McLeannan and GaJbraith on the Atlantic slope near the 

 railroad. Later W. W. Brown, Jr., secured a pair in this same area, 

 and in more recent times the bird has been found occasionally on 

 Barro Colorado Island. To the east it is more common, as most of 

 the more recent reports come from eastern Panama Province and 

 Darien. The little known of its life is found in the few statements 

 above. I have never heard it call, and nothing is reported of its 

 nesting. 



The genus Nonnula is widely distributed in South America through 

 the Amazon Basin, and beyond ranges to the south to northern 

 Argentina. The several species currently recognized, in the main, are 

 quite similar in general appearance. It is probable that when they 

 are better known some of those now treated as distinct will prove to 

 be more closely related as geographic races. The forms of Panama 

 and northern Colombia, the most northern in distribution, recently 

 through general resemblance have been listed as subspecies under 

 Nonnula ruficapilla. The pattern of coloration in nominate ruficapilla, 

 and in the related race rufipectiis, is distinct in its extent of gray on 

 the side of the head and neck, and bright brown crown in contrast 

 with the duller colors of the rest of the dorsal surface. Nonnula 

 frontalis is duller and more uniform in hue. Until the entire genus 

 is better known it has seemed desirable to follow the allocation by 

 Peters (Check-list Birds World, vol. 6, 1948, p. 20), as a distinct 

 species. 



The race of Panama compared to typical frontalis of northwestern 

 Colombia, found from north-central Antioquia east to the middle 

 Magdalena Valley, is somewhat grayer, less rufescent above, with 

 the crown duller brown, and on the average very slightly duller brown 

 on breast and foreneck. A still paler race, Nonnula frontalis palles- 

 cens is found in the lower Magdalena Valley and west along the 

 Caribbean littoral to the lower Atrato, where it occurs at Unguia 

 and Acandi in northern Choco. Central Panama marks the northern 

 limit of the genus. 



MONASA MORPHOEUS (Hahn) : White-fronted Nunbird, Monja 



Figure 61 



Bucco Morphoeus C. W. Hahn, Vog. Asien, Afrika, Amer. u. Neuholland, vol. 

 2, 1823, pt. 14, pi. 2, text. (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.) 



