7 2 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



Ensenada below Punta de Pena Tiburon, January 24; at Manzanillo, 

 above Punta Gorda, farther south, June 25; and along the Rio Cacique 

 at the west side of the large bay on the southern side of Rey on Janu- 

 ary 27. 



Eisenmann heard a wren, evidently of this genus, singing near a 

 stream on Saboga Island in the Perlas on July 9, 1964. He did not see 

 the bird. Though unreported from this island, no other Thryothorus 

 is known from this archipelago. 



THRYOTHORUS MODESTUS Cabanis; Plain Wren, Cucarachero Sencillo 



Thryothorus modestus Cabanis, Journ. f. Orn., vol. 8, "Nov. 1860" (published 

 May 30, 1861), p. 409. (San Jose, Costa Rica.) 



Rather small; upper surface from crown to back of tail grayish 

 brown. Similar in general to Thryothorus leucotis, but with dark bar- 

 rings on wings much less prominent. In nominate modestus and elutus, 

 distinctly buff on sides, undertail coverts, rump, and wings; one very 

 grayish race {zeledoni). 



Description. — Length 125-135 mm {elutus), 145-150 mm {zeledoni) . 

 Adult (sexes alike), crown and hindneck dark, slightly brownish gray, 

 becoming olive-brown on back, scapulars, wing, and rump; upper tail 

 coverts faintly paler; tail russet or grayish brown, barred heavily with 

 dull black; secondaries and outer webs of inner primaries dull rufous 

 or grayish brown, barred with black to dusky; primaries otherwise dull 

 black; a broad white line above eye; lores and space around eye white, 

 with a dull black spot in front of eye, extending in a narrow line be- 

 hind; throat white; breast and upper abdomen white or shaded gray, 

 tinged with cinnamon-buff on sides; flanks and undertail coverts cin- 

 namon or buffy olive; underwing coverts white. 



Immature, somewhat duller, with markings on side of head less 

 distinct. 



The Plain Wren occurs from Chiapas, Mexico, through Central 

 America to central Panama. The nominate race, modestus, is found 

 from central Mexico south through much of Costa Rica, replaced in 

 Panama by the subspecies elutus (which ranges north into the extreme 

 southeastern end of Costa Rica). Zeledon's Wren, zeledoni, described 

 beyond, is a Caribbean form with a range on the Caribbean slope from 

 northern Bocas del Toro north in eastern Costa Rica to southeastern 

 Nicaragua; currently regarded as a geographic race of T. modestus, it 

 is included (with reservations) under that species. 



