FAMILY TROGLODYTIDAE 



III 



HENICORHINA LEUCOSTICTA PITTIERI Cherrie 



Henicorhina Pittieri Cherrie, Anal. Inst. Fis.-Geogr. Mus. Nac. Costa Rica, vol. 



IV, 1891 (1893), p. 134. (Boruca, Puntarenas, Costa Rica.) 

 Henicorhina prostheleuca tropaea Bangs and Peters, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 



lxvii, no. 15, January 1927, p. 480. (La Vijagua, Alajuela, Costa Rica.) 



Characters. — Closely similar to H. I. darienensis, but with crown 

 median area washed with rufescent brown (variable in depth of color) . 



A male collected at the head of the Rio Guabal, on the Caribbean slope 

 of Code, February 28, 1961, had the iris dark mouse brown; bill black; 

 tarsus, toes, and claws dusky neutral gray. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from the Pacific slope, from south- 

 western Costa Rica, and western Chiriqui, eastward through the 

 Canal Zone), wing 52.5-58.6 (55.0) , tail 23.0-29.1 (26.5), culmen from 

 base 17.0-18.9 ( 17.8), tarsus 22.5-24.7 (23.6) mm. 



Females (10 from western Costa Rica, Chiriqui, and Bocas del Toro 

 to the Canal Zone, and Chepo, eastern Province of Panama), wing 

 50.2-53.9 (52.1), tail 23.0-27.0 (25.5), culmen from base 15.6-17.7 

 (16.6), tarsus 21.6-25.5 (22.6) mm. 



Resident. Common in forests to 1300 m, less so to 1900 m; on 

 Pacific and Atlantic slopes from the Costa Rican boundary through 

 western Chiriqui and western Bocas del Toro (Almirante, Cricamola, 

 to 750 m above Rio Changuena) . Found also on the Caribbean slope of 

 Code (upper Rio Code del Norte, Rio Calovevora) , and western Colon 

 (on the Rio Indio) ; on the Pacific side, Veraguas (Chitra, Santa Fe), 

 Code (El Valle), on Cerro Campana, western Province of Panama 

 and the Cerro Azul-Cerro Jefe area, the hills north of Chepo (Zanja 

 Limon), eastern Province of Panama. In the Canal Zone it is found in 

 woodlands at Fort Clayton, Madden Forest Preserve, Pipeline Road 

 area, and along the Achiote Road. Birds collected by Ridgely and Ga- 

 lindo in the lowlands and hills above the Rio Bayano and its tributaries 

 have not been subspecifically identified. 



Northward in Central America, this form ranges on the Caribbean 

 slope through forest areas in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and 

 Guatemala. With the series of specimens now available the supposed 

 subspecies tropaea named by Bangs and Peters from La Vijagua in 

 the Caribbean drainage of northern Costa Rica, with a range extending 

 east to Bocas del Toro and northward to Guatemala, is not separable 

 from pittieri. 



On the mountain slopes in western Chiriqui I found these wrens com- 

 mon in pairs in undergrowth through the forest. As they moved about 

 in dense cover, usually near the ground, they were recorded mainly 



