8o BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



Two males collected by Strauch (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, 1977, p. 64) 

 weighed 27.1 and 27.7 g. 



Although primarily a lowland species, Eisenmann (in litt.) saw it at 

 about 1500 m in the Boquete area at Quiel in a coffee plantation (Febru- 

 ary 27, 1960) and on the Camino a la Estrellon (July 19, 1964, seen 

 singing). Ridgely netted and released 1 on March 3, 1976, at approxi- 

 mately 1350 m in central Chiriqui on the upper Rio Chiriqui (Fortuna 

 Dam site) at the edge of a clearing in humid forest, a surprising 

 location. 



The song, while variable, is usually very distinctive and unlike that of 

 any other wrens because of the low pitch of many notes, which, to 

 Eisenmann's ear, gives a "hooting" quality, although Hartshorne states 

 they are pure, musical tones, mostly on the diatonic scale. The most 

 characteristic phrase consists usually of four (more or less) "hooting" 

 notes often followed by an emphatic higher note: hoo-hoo-hoo whit; 

 sometimes the higher last note slides down or is followed, or replaced 

 by, a trill. Sometimes the initial notes {lee, lee, looo) suggest the first 

 three notes of the bugle call "taps." Mrs. Cora C. Alderton, who lived 

 at Gamboa, Canal Zone, had a nesting pair in her garden in 1957-58 

 and gave Eisenmann, in musical notation, fifteen major variations and 

 a larger number of minor ones of songs heard, and said she had heard 

 more than fifty variations. Among, the "trilling" variations is one 

 somewhat resembling a subdued bugle call, mentioned by Sturgis (Field 

 Book of Birds of the Canal Zone, 1928, p. 358). The song has been 

 highly praised also by Chapman (My Tropical Air Castle, 1929, p. 358) 

 and others. In addition to the songs, Eisenmann has heard a loud, 

 rattling chatter and a dry thrrrrp. 



Mrs. Alderton showed Eisenmann a nest in her garden in Gamboa 

 that was "saddle bag-shaped," with a wide entrance tube, on the stem 

 of a frond of a small ornamental palm. It was begun on April 3, 1958, 

 but destroyed by Thraupis tanagers. Another nest was begun in the 

 same palm on April 1 1 ; straws for the lining were brought in on April 

 27. Incubation apparently began in early May. D. E. Harrower (thesis 

 at Cornell University) reports "breeding season from at least April to 

 September"; he found an active nest on July 17 at Pedro Miguel, Canal 

 Zone, in a thorny acacia 2-3 m from the ground. F. O. Chapelle noted 

 a pair building near Ft. Clayton on April 20, 1955; this nest, also in 

 bullhorn acacia, was almost finished on April 23. S. F. Ambrose found 

 a nest being built in a bullhorn acacia on July 4, 1964, at Santa Clara, 

 Code, on the Pacific Coast. 



