i68 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



Museum of Natural History are probably mislabeled. One taken in a 

 mist net at Almirante, Bocas del Toro (October 28, 1963; Gorgas Me- 

 morial Laboratory) could have been either a stray or a cage-bird 

 escape. 



The solitario is a forest inhabitant, living mainly on tree-grown 

 slopes or in thickets in ravines and gullies. Though shy and retiring, 

 they may be seen moving under cover in low vegetation, along shaded 

 cut banks near roads and streams, or, casually, flying across open trails. 

 Their songs may be heard regularly, but country-dwellers assure the 

 traveler that it is impossible to see the bird at freedom ! In my observa- 

 tions, they are not gregarious, as I encountered them singly. They 

 were captured rather regularly in mist nets. 



Figure 13. — Black-faced Solitaire, Solitario Carinegro, Myadestes melanops. 



In Costa Rica, where they are better known, they are prized as cage 

 birds for their songs. Skutch, in his detailed study of the solitaire in 

 that country (Publ. Nuttall Orn. Club, no. 7, 1967, p. 117), says that it 

 "sings with a calm deliberation that seems the product of a studied art." 



