54 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



Caldera, near Boquete, and the upper Rio Chiriqui Vie jo, beyond El 

 Volcan, from 1200 to 1700 m (reported by Brown, but perhaps un- 

 certainly, to 2200 m). 



In July 1965, Dr. C. R. Schneider (a chemist) believes he saw a dip- 

 per on the Cana River near Cana, Darien (over 900 m) (Ridgely 1976, 

 p. 265 ) . If any dipper does occur in Darien it may be either this species 

 or C. leucocephalus of the Andes. 



The Panama race is better known in Costa Rica, where it is found on 

 the Caribbean slope of the central highlands as well as on the Pacific 

 side of the mountains. In Panama it has not yet been recorded on the 

 Atlantic drainage. It was described originally from 2 females — one 

 adult, the other in immature dress — sent by Arce to Salvin, from the 

 mountains inland from Tole. The type locality, a short distance west of 

 the boundary with the Province of Veraguas, is the most easterly con- 

 firmed report for the dipper in Panama. The sex of the 2 specimens 

 which I examined in the British Museum (Natural History) is marked 

 as female on the original labels. 



Another specimen in the British Museum, dated 1873, received 

 from Boucard with the locality indicated only as "Panama," may have 

 come from the same source. These were the only specimens known 

 until Brown collected a series of 11, near Boquete, and above on the 

 slopes of the volcano, between February and April, 1901 (Bangs, 

 Proc. New England Zool. Club, 1902, p. 51). The Monniche collection 

 in the Field Museum has 3 specimens, 2 from Bajo Mono, and 1 from 

 the Rio Caldera, the localities being at about 1580 and 1650 m. In the 

 Smithsonian collections there is an adult female taken near Cerro 

 Punta, Chiriqui, March 9, 1962, by Dr. C. L. Hayward. I recorded 

 dippers occasionally, singly or in pairs, along the upper Rio Chiriqui 

 Vie jo from near the bridge west of El Volcan to the upper courses be- 

 low Cerro Punta. They were not observed on the narrower channels 

 above the village. Always they were wary, ranging along swift water 

 in rocky channels. No specimens were collected, since it would not have 

 been possible to retrieve them from the fairly deep, swiftly flowing 

 water. Their habits and low calls were like those of the slightly darker 

 race of the mountain streams of western United States. 



In March 1955, Glen Lewis told me that a pair came regularly along 

 the river canyon beside his house below Cerro Punta. They had a nest 

 concealed between two stones on the bank opposite his house, where it 

 was inaccessible as there was no crossing. It appeared to be bulky, 

 made of mosslike material. Eisenmann and Ridgely (in lift.) report 

 nesting in the same general locality in 1969, 1972, and 1979. 



