Carriker : List of the Birds of Costa Rica. 745 



Catharus gracilirostris gracilis ostris Ridgway, Birds N. and Mid. Amer., IV, 

 1907, 32 (high mountains of Costa Rica: Rancho Redondo, Volcan de Poas, 

 Volcan de Irazii, Volcan de Turrialba, Rancho de Rio Jimenez, San Mateo ')• 



U. S. Nat. Museum: Las Vueltas de Dota (Basulto). 



Bangs Collection: Volcan de Irazii (Underwood). 



Carnegie Museum: Volcan de Irazii, Volcan de Turrialba, Ujuras de 



Terraba (Carriker). Eleven skins. 



This aberrant Catharus is found only in the very high mountains of 

 Costa Rica from 7,000 to 10,000 feet above sea-level, wherever there are 

 dense, humid forests. Although their natural abode is in the forest, they 

 seem to have adapted themselves to the changed conditions on many 

 parts of the Volcanoes Irazii and Turrialba, where the forest has been 

 removed to make pastures, but where some of the trees have been left 

 scattered about. Here the birds may be seen hopping over the short 

 grass, or perched on the top of a stump or low limb of a tree. They have 

 a very sweet song, though rather weak, and as a rule do not sing except 

 at the beginning of the breeding season. 



I found them breeding very abundantly on the Volcan de Irazii, be- 

 ginning about the middle of April. Six nests were found between April 

 16 and 18, 1902, all containing two eggs, of which some were fresh and 

 others slightly incubated. This species also builds its nest almost en- 

 tirely of moss, and entirely out of proportion to the size of the bird, it 

 being usually about six inches in diameter each way, and with a very 

 small cavity in the top, lined with hairs and rootlets. Almost without 

 exception the nests were placed in a low shrub (about three to six feet 

 from the ground) in a thicket beside a road or on the edge of the forest, 

 but never within the thick forest itself. The eggs are "robin's-egg" blue, 

 more or less thickly speckled and dotted with reddish-brown or deep 

 chestnut, usually with a heavier wreath or cap of this color at the larger 

 end, although rarely speckled evenly over the entire surface. Measure- 

 ments: 20.5 to 23X15 to 16 mm. 



524. Catharus griseiceps Salvin. 



Catharus griseiceps Salvin, P. Z. S., 1866, 68, 69 (Santa Fe de Veragua; coll. 

 Salvin and Godman). — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, I, 

 1879, 6, pi. 1, fig. 2 (Panama). — Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., V, 1881, 

 287 (Panama). — Ridgway, Birds N. and Mid. Amer., IV, 1907, 32 (Panama). 

 — Bangs, Auk, XXIV, 1907, 304 (Boruca, Paso Real, and Barranca de Ter- 

 raba [Underwood]). 



1 This locality is without question an error. San Mateo has an altitude of only 

 about 1,500 ft., while this bird is rarely taken below 7,000 ft. 



