Todd-Caeriker ; Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 385 



348. Euscarthmus impiger impiger Sclater and Salvin. 



Euscarthmus impiger Bangs^ Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XII, 1898, 136 



("Santa Marta"). — Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIII, igoo, 150 



(Bonda and Cacagualito) ; XXI, 1905, 286 (Bonda; descr. nest and eggs). 



— Chapman, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXXIII, 1914, 176, in text (Bonda; 



crit.). . 



Twenty-nine specimens: Bonda, La Tigrera, Mamatoco, Santa 

 Marta, Rio Hacba, and Fonseca. 



Euscarthmus impiger was described originally from a specimen col- 

 lected by Goering, and said to have been taken near Caracas, Vene- 

 zuela. It has been traced eastward to Margarita Island (Cory, Field 

 Museum Ornithological Series, I, 1909, 246), and westward to include 

 the Santa Marta coast region, from which the great majority of the 

 specimens at present known to science have been obtained. Its range 

 is thus strictly littoral, and it is entirely probable that specimens from 

 higher altitudes will be found upon examination to belong to E. sep- 

 tentrionalis Chapman. The present series agree well with a specimen 

 in the American Museum collection from Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. 

 There is considerable variation evident in the color of the upper parts, 

 due at least in part to season, September and October birds being de- 

 cidedly more rufescent than those shot in April and May. A con- 

 siderable sexual difference in size is also indicated. The iris is vari- 

 ously marked as white, straw-color, and brown in different specimens. 



A Tropical Zone form, ranging from near sea-level up to not more 

 than 1,000 feet, but commoner on the coastal plain and at the lower edge 

 of the foothills. Although numerous at Rio Hacha, it was not seen 

 at Don Diego or Dibulla, being partial to the drier sections, and places 

 where there are open savannas with scattering trees and shrubbery. 

 It keeps near the ground in small trees and shrubs, and has a call- 

 note loud and harsh for such a small bird. 



Mr. Smith sent in eight nests of this species, all collected at Bonda 

 from May 5 to June 2. " The nests are suspended from a drooping 

 twig, of a- shrub or herbaceous plant, to which they are strongly at- 

 tached by the twig being heavily enclosed in the substance of the upper 

 part of the nest, which sometimes forms a pointed projection upward 

 beyond the main body of the nest. The small circular entrance, how- 

 ever, is on the side, near the top of the nest, instead of at the bottom 

 through a slightly produced tube, as in Elanea, Todirostrum, Rhyn- 



