FAMILY TROGLODYTIDAE 



99 



northern Code, east on both Pacific and Caribbean slopes in the Canal 

 Zone (including Barro Colorado Island where, however, it was last re- 

 corded August 22, 1964 [Willis and Eisenmann, Smiths. Cont. Zool. 

 291, 1979, p. 24]), through the eastern Province of Panama, including 

 the valley of Rio Bayano (El Llano, Canita, Chiman, the Rio Maje 

 (Charco del Toro), and the Tuira Valley (El Real, Pucro) ; and on the 

 Caribbean side through San Bias (Mandinga, Bahia Caledonia, Perme, 

 Armila) to the Colombian boundary of northeastern Choco. 



These forest inhabitants, found usually in pairs, at the proper season 

 with grown young, range near the ground in low undergrowth, often 

 in masses of creepers, low tangles of vines, and dense growths of Heli- 

 conia in abandoned banana plantations. Occasionally they were with 

 Song Wrens as near companions. The clear, whistled call, wheety-o- 

 zvhee, repeated constantly, usually is heard from birds so well concealed 

 in creepers or other cover, from the ground to fairly high in the trees, 

 that there may be many minutes without even a glimpse of movement in 

 the dense cover that they frequent. Only occasionally will one approach 

 almost within arm's reach, where they utter low calls of a different 

 nature and then retreat to more distant cover. 



The song consists of clear hollow whistles, often including or ending 

 with a characteristic whee-o-wheet. It is quite different in its more 

 varied, constantly changing repertoire, from the rapidly repeated 

 phrases of Thryothorus nigricapilhts and T. lencotis that often range 

 near it in the same forests. 



In stomach examinations the food was found to be the usual variety 

 of small insects and spiders, all finely ground. 



In a pair collected by Burton (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club., 1975, p. 85) 

 in the Province of Panama the male weighed 28 g and the female 21.4 g. 

 Strauch (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, 1977, p. 64) took a female in the same 

 province that weighed 20.7 g. 



One banded at Curundu, Canal Zone, on December 7, 1963, was re- 

 captured on September 18, 1967 (Loftin in lift, to Eisenmann). 



THRYOTHORUS RUTILUS HYPERYTHRUS Salvin and Godman: 

 Rufous-breasted Wren, Ruisenor del Monte 



Thryothorus hyperythrus Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Amer., vol. 1, April 

 1880, p. 91. (Paraiso station, Panama Railroad, Canal Zone.) 



Small; throat and side of head black, spotted heavily with white; 

 undersurface rufous-brown; tail black, barred widely with white. 

 Description. — Length 115-130 mm. Adult (sexes alike), crown 



