IOO BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



russet-brown, becoming lighter on hind neck; back, including scapulars 

 and upper tail coverts, olive-brown; wings somewhat brighter brown; 

 tail grayish brown, barred heavily with black, the outer margins of the 

 paler bands often white; side of head, including lores and throat, black, 

 streaked and spotted narrowly with white; undersurface, including 

 sides and legs, tawny-brown, somewhat paler centrally; undertail co- 

 verts black, barred with dull grayish white; underwing coverts, includ- 

 ing edge of wing, white. 



Adult males, collected at El Cope, Code, February 25, 1963, and El 

 Volcan, Chiriqui, March 22, 1965, had the iris light reddish brown; 

 maxilla and tip of mandible black; rest of mandible somewhat bluish 

 neutral gray; tarsus, toes, and claws dark, bluish neutral gray; inside 

 of mouth black, this color covering the thickened base of the tongue, 

 but not the thin, transparent tip. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Chiriqui, Veraguas, and Canal 

 Zone), wing 56.9-60.4 (58.0), tail 47.2-52.1 (48.8), culmen from base 

 17.3-18.6 (17.9), tarsus 20.3-23.7 (21.4) mm. 



Females (10 from Chiriqui, Veraguas, Code, Los Santos, and Prov- 

 ince of Panama), wing 50.6-54.7 (53.6), tail 40.4-46.5 (43.7), culmen 

 from base 16.6-18.0 (17.3), tarsus 19.1-20.5 (19.8) mm. 



Resident. Common locally on the Pacific slope from western Chiri- 

 qui to the lower Rio Bayano in eastern Province of Panama (not found 

 in Darien), including the Azuero Peninsula, and the southern Canal 

 Zone; found through the lowlands; ranging upward in hill country at 

 El Valle, Code, and Cerro Campana, Panama to about 1000 m and in 

 Chiriqui to 1600 m (Bajo Mono, Velo) on the Pacific slope of Volcan 

 de Chiriqui; recorded occasionally on the Caribbean slope in the Canal 

 Zone, especially in the middle Chagres Valley, and at Portobelo, Colon. 



Salvin (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1870, p. 181) under the name 

 rutilus listed this bird from "Calovevora," and this locality was included 

 also in the original description by Salvin and Godman (p. 91), which 

 would indicate a locality on the Caribbean slope of Veraguas. 



These are shy birds, widely distributed but not abundant, found in 

 pairs along the borders of forest, ranging near the ground, and also 

 through tangled vines massed in the lower branches of trees. Their 

 tendency to forage higher in low trees makes them somewhat easier to 

 see than most wrens. Their presence is usually first made known by 

 their constant songs as they creep about under dense cover of leaves. 

 Their notes are clear and emphatic, in tone more suggestive of a finch 

 or a wood warbler of the O porornis-S eiurus group than of a wren. On 

 one occasion, with a companion I followed 1 slowly for sometime 



