FAMILY TURDIDAE 



143 



taken by W. W. Brown in May and June 1901 from the high slopes of 

 the volcano. Blake (Fieldiana: Zool., vol. 36, no. 5, 1958, pp. 549-550) 

 listed 8 in the Monniche collection from elevations of 1980 to 3078 m. 

 The specimens examined from Chiriqui appear identical in size and 

 coloration with those from the mountains of Costa Rica. 



Eisenmann writes that in western Chiriqui it is known from above 

 timberline on Volcan de Chiriqui, but is also frequently seen on the 

 ground in the cleared area about the top of the trail between Cerro 

 Punta and Boquete, at about 2400 m. On July 21, 1964, at least a 

 hundred were in groups of as many as 20 in one small tree at about 

 1860 m. It is likely that some downward wandering occurs after the 

 breeding season; some of the birds seen were in juvenal plumage. 



Ridgely (1976, p. 276) describes the song as "poor but still some- 

 what robinlike" and renders the calls as "trrrr and a harsh tchweerp, 

 tchweerp." He adds (in lift.) that the Sooty Robin does not seem to 

 sing very often. 



A nest found in Costa Rica at Villa Mills, Cartago Province, April 

 21, 1974, by Maxine Kiff held two eggs containing feathered embryos. 

 The eggs were "robin's egg blue" and unspotted. One, now in the 

 collection of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, measured 

 33.00x22.42 mm. The nest was located 4 m high in a 7-m tree at the 

 edge of cutover montane rain forest and pasture, about 1 m from the 

 trunk in the crotch of a limb. The nest was composed of mosses and 

 sticks, lined with fine grasses. A nest found by Carriker (Ann. Car- 

 negie Mus., vol. 6, 1910, p. 738-739) at Volcan Irazu was made of 

 grass and mud. 



The original description of this thrush, in the Journal fur Ornithol- 

 ogie, was published in the final issue for the year, which was dated 

 September 1860. The copy of this number in the library of the Smith- 

 sonian's Division of Birds when received had a notice printed on the 

 bottom of the front cover stating that it had been published "im Januar, 

 1861." This data is carried in C. W. Richmond's card catalogue for 

 nigrescens, and was so listed by Ridgway (Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 

 50, Part IV, 1907, p. 124). 



HYLOCICHLA MUSTELINA (Gmelin): Wood Thrush, 

 Zorzal Pechimanchado 



T.(urdus) mustelinus Gmelin, 1789, Syst. Nat., 1 (2), p. 817, ex Latham "Tawny 

 Thrush" ("in Noveboraco" = New York). 



Medium size; upper surface rufescent brown; undersurface white, 

 heavily spotted with black. 



