552 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA — PART 2 



A female, taken at El Volcan, February 28, 1965, had the iris yel- 

 lowish white; thickened edge of eyelid dull black; rest of bare skin 

 around eye dull fuscous; tarsus and toes dull greenish neutral gray; 

 claws dull black. 



Measurements. — Males (12 from Chiriqui), wing 133.4-145.4 

 (138.8), tail 67.8-80.0 (74.8), culmen from base 25.6-29.1 (27.3), 

 tarsus 22.1-23.6 (22.8) mm. 



Females (12 from Chiriqui), wing 132.6-139.9 (135.8), tail 70.0- 

 80.0 (73.5), culmen from base 23.9-29.9 (26.9), tarsus 22.0-23.7 

 (22.7) mm. 



Resident. Locally common in the Subtropical and lower Temperate 

 Zones between 1,250 and 2,280 meters in the mountains of Chiriqui 

 and Veraguas. 



These birds were reported first in Panama by Sclater (Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. London, 1856, p. 143) from collections made by Bridges, who 

 found them "not rare in the forests of the Boqueti." As the title of 

 Sclater's paper reads "List of Mammals and Birds collected by Mr. 

 Bridges in the vicinity of the town of David," etc., early accounts 

 quoted this first record of this mountain bird erroneously as from the 

 lowlands near David. Other recently published lowland records (Auk, 

 1950, p. 364) from Isla Burica and Isla Sevilla, Chiriqui, were taken 

 from specimens forwarded by J. H. Batty with falsified locality data. 



Primarily, these woodpeckers are forest birds that range over open 

 branches, projecting stubs, and dead limbs rising above the main 

 high tree crown. As land has been cleared for agriculture they have 

 found the tall trees, dead and living, left standing in pasturelands and 

 cultivated fields attractive. It is there that they come most often 

 under observation, as elsewhere usually they are concealed from 

 view by leaves. They are gregarious, and are found in pairs and in 

 little groups. In the early morning chill of the mountain air they rest 

 in the sun or fly about sociably several together, regularly coming to 

 attention through their loquacious calls of ya-cob ya-cob and other 

 chattering notes. In March on the mountain slopes above El Volcan 

 and Cerro Punta I found them active about holes cut in high limbs, 

 and apparently they were ready to nest. 



Skutch (Scient. Month., 1943, pp. 363-364) in Costa Rica found 

 that at night like other woodpeckers they slept in the holes that they 

 had made in dead branches and stubs. They differed from the usual 

 custom of other species, however, in that instead of roosting in pairs 

 or alone, several, up to 5, joined in company in the same cavity. He 

 found also that their nesting was a communal affair, as has been 



