2 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



from Colombia obtained by M. A. Carriker. When I began work on 

 the project, there still remained thousands of specimens of nine- 

 primaried oscines and a few other families from Panama and Colom- 

 bia that had not been identified or incorporated in the main collections. 

 I have evaluated the geographic variation in each of these remaining 

 species and have made all of the decisions about subspecific limits. In 

 some instances I was not able to recognize taxa that are currently held 

 to be valid, whereas in others I was able to discern undescribed sub- 

 species. Most major innovations I have proposed elsewhere in technical 

 journals. I have made no attempt to try to guess how Dr. Wetmore 

 might have interpreted each species; therefore, the systematics used 

 in the section from the Ptilogonatidae onward is mine alone. An ex- 

 ception is made for the subspecies of North American migrants, where 

 I have deferred to the judgment of my colleagues John W. Aldrich, 

 M. Ralph Browning, and Allan R. Phillips, each of whom has been 

 consulted regarding particular taxa. 



Any sequence of species is bound to be to some extent arbitrary. 

 Because Ridgely (1976) followed the sequence that Dr. Wetmore had 

 used in the first three volumes of this series, we have simply adopted 

 the sequence of species in Ridgely for the present volume, in order to 

 make the two works compatible. Exceptions are Donacobius, now 

 placed at the beginning of the Troglodytidae, Myadestes, which ap- 

 pears in the Ptilogonatidae, and Spiza, which now leads off the Icter- 

 idae. The artificial family "Coerebidae" we have placed after the 

 Thraupidae, in which family most of the coerebid genera properly be- 

 long. Although we have included the Cyclarhidae and Vireolaniidae in 

 the Vireonidae, and the Zeledoniidae in the Parulidae, this has not af- 

 fected the sequence of species. 



As mentioned, Dr. Wetmore had completed his studies on the taxa 

 up to the Ptilogonatidae, and this portion of the text we have attempted 

 to leave as intact as possible, although the effort has been made to in- 

 clude information published since the manuscript was originally com- 

 pleted. Mr. Pasquier has assembled the species accounts from the field 

 notes and bibliographic index left by Dr. Wetmore and from the sub- 

 sequent literature. Because so much of the information comes directly 

 from Dr. Wetmore's field notes, the first person singular has been re- 

 tained throughout, which also conforms with the first part of the vol- 

 ume, written by Dr. Wetmore alone. In places I have interjected my 

 own comments, these being initialled and set off in brackets. Citations 

 of "in lift." refer to correspondence received by either Pasquier or Ol- 

 son, unless indicated otherwise. From the Ptilogonatidae onward, all 



