FAMILY TURD1DAE 



153 



87.0 (82.8), tail 52.1-61.6 (57.5), oilmen from base 13.5-17.5 (15.5, 

 average of 9), tarsus 28.2-31.8 (30.1) mm. 



Resident. Found locally in the higher elevations on the Caribbean 

 slope of the mountains in western Panama. Recorded to date from the 

 Boquete trail, and the upper Rio Changuena, 1060 m, both in the high- 

 lands of western Bocas del Toro; Calovevora, and the Cordillera del 

 Chucu, Veraguas (around Santa Fe, high on both slopes). Beyond 

 Panama this race is recorded north to Nicaragua; other races are 

 found north into Mexico. 



In the original description, Ridgway listed his type as "Adult male 

 (No. 101765, Costa Rica, October 20, 1881; Jose C. Zeledon)." Zele- 

 don, in his Catalogo de las Aves de Costa Rica (Anal. Mus. Nac, 1887, 

 published 1888), cited under each species the localities and number of 

 specimens in the collection of the Museo Nacional. On page 104, family 

 Turdidae, he wrote "Catharus fumosus Ridgway, Jimenez 1," this 

 being a specimen in the local collection (not Ridgway 's type, which is 

 in the Smithsonian collections). Deignan (Bull. U.S. National Mu- 

 seum, 1961, vol. 221, pp. 429-430), with reference to Zeledon, above, 

 listed Ridgway's type as " 'Costa Rica' = Jimenez, Province of Limon, 

 Costa Rica," but no such specific locality can be ascribed to the actual 

 type. 



Slud (Birds of Costa Rica, 1964, pp. 300-301) speaks of fumosus as 

 a species of the Caribbean slope in the humid foothills of that country, 

 found frequently in the same habitat as its relative Catharus fuse at er 

 hellmayri, low down in undergrowth, often on a log or on the ground, 

 remaining rather constantly undercover, moving with quick hops, then 

 coming to a sudden halt. 



In November 1940, on the watershed leading to the Caribbean slope 

 on Cerro Santa Maria, Costa Rica, I found these thrushes fairly com- 

 mon, ranging near the ground in the dense shadows of the humid forest. 

 When detected they disappeared immediately in the heavy cover. At 

 this season they were quiet, and were not singing. 



Slud {op. cit.) says the song is variable, with one or two short 

 phrases, with an extra note or two added at the start or end. In some 

 phrases there is a slurred, sharp "sreek." The quality is fuzzy, slurred, 

 or skewy flutelike; some notes are wavering warbles. Calls are a quick 

 dry trill, a rattle like stones knocked together, a very soft unclear 

 pseer, and an antbirdlike grrr and meww. C. Hartshorne character- 

 izes the song as "barely mediocre," weaker and inferior to that of C. 

 frantzii. 



