FAMILY TROGLODYTIDAE 



89 



Measurements. — Males (14 from the Caribbean slope of Cocle, 

 western Colon, and northern Canal Zone), wing 66.2-70.7 (68.9), tail 

 49.4-53.7 (51.7), oilmen from base 20.3-22.0 (21.0), tarsus 24.9-27.5 

 (25.8) mm. 



Females (17 from Cocle, western Colon, and northern Canal Zone), 

 wing 63.1-67.0 (64.8), tail 46.3-53.4 (49.2), oilmen from base 19.3- 

 21.9 (20.2), tarsus 23.4-25.7 (24.7) mm. 



Resident. Locally common on the Caribbean slope from the valley 

 of the Rio Calovevora, northwestern Veraguas, through northern Vera- 

 guas and northern Cocle (reaching the Pacific slope in these provinces) 

 to the northern Canal Zone (including the middle Chagres Valley), 

 and reaching the Pacific slope in the southwestern section. 



In March 1951, I found this wren on the border of the Pacific slope 

 near El Valle, Cocle, at 750 m elevation on the base of Cerro La India 

 Dormida (male and female collected March 29), and at 600 m at the 

 head of the Rio Mata Ahogada (female March 30, male March 31). 

 Their presence in this area may be explained by more humid local con- 

 ditions in contrast to the drier norm of the rest of the valley, indicated 

 by abundant growth of green grass, herbaceous vegetation and vines, 

 with occasional areas of new second-growth brush. The actual head of 

 the Rio Mata Ahogada, which flows into the Pacific, is immediately 

 adjacent to the headwaters of the Rio Indio of the Atlantic drainage, 

 the two being separated only by a low, rounded ridge of slight elevation. 

 In fieldwork the following year I found this race of the wren common 

 inland along the valley of the Rio Indio. In this locality the bird was 

 known to the country people as "El Guerrero." The species crosses the 

 Continental Divide also in Veraguas at Santa Fe, where it has recently 

 been observed by Ridgely and where in 1925 Benson took a specimen 

 (AMNH). Eisenmann has also observed it in the fairly humid cano- 

 pied second-growth forest on the southwestern section of the Canal 

 Zone east of Chorrera. An early report by Salvin (Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 London, 1867, p. 134) of a specimen of castaneus labeled "Santiago 

 de Veraguas" on the much drier Pacific section of the Isthmus is an 

 error as the bird does not occur in that area. Salvin and Godman re- 

 peat this locality (Biol. Centr.-Amer. Birds, vol. 1, pt. 4, 1880, p. 88) 

 and later authors have also done so. 



Stone (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 70, 1918, p. 271), 

 described a nest found by Jewel in the Canal Zone, July 28, 1912, as "a 

 loosely built elbow-shaped affair, made almost entirely of a round- 

 stemmed grass and lined with finer stems of the same, a few coarser 

 stems and reddish-brown vine tendrils on the outside. Loosely placed 



