FAMILY PTILOGONATIDAE 



175 



PHAINOPTILA MELANOXANTHA Salvin: Black-and-yellow Phainoptila, 



Capulinero Orinegro 



Phainoptila melanoxantha Salvin, 1877, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 367. (Costa 



Rica = San Francisco, fide Hellmayr, 1935.) 

 Phainoptila melanoxantha minor Griscom, 1924, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 141, p. 8. 



(Cerro Flores, eastern Chiriqui, Panama.) 



Medium size; male mostly shining black with bright yellow on flanks; 

 female mostly olive-green with bright yellow on flanks. 



Description. — Length 180-217 mm. Male, entire upper surface ex- 

 cept rump shining black; rump lemon yellow; face, throat, and upper 

 breast shining black; band across lower breast yellowish green; sides 

 and undertail coverts lemon yellow; rest of undersurface gray; under- 

 wing coverts yellowish green. 



Female, crown shining black; hindneck bluish gray; back and wing- 

 coverts yellowish green, with flecks of bluish gray and slightly brighter 

 green on rump; primaries, secondaries, and tail feathers brown, edged 

 yellowish green; throat gray; band across upper breast olive-yellow; 

 sides and undertail coverts lemon yellow; rest of undersurface gray; 

 underwing coverts pale yellow. 



Immature male, like female, with a few black feathers on throat. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Chiriqui, Panama and Irazu, 

 Costa Rica), wing 95.4-103.8 (99.5) , tail 82.2-90.0 (85.5), oilmen from 

 base 16.0-19.2 (18.0), tarsus 25.6-28.9 (27.2) mm. 



Females (10 from Chiriqui, Panama, and Irazu, Costa Rica), wing 

 92.3-99.0 (96.4), tail 77.4-85.4 (81.0), culmen from base 15.2-17.6 

 (16.8), tarsus 25.4-28.8 (26.2) mm. 



Resident. Uncommon in Temperate Zone highlands of western 

 Chiriqui and Bocas del Toro (one record, Blake, Fieldiana: Zool., vol. 

 36, no. 5, 1958, p. 553) and from eastern Chiriqui and Veraguas. The 

 Monniche specimens described by Blake came from elevations of 1560- 

 3300 m. Ridgway (U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull., vol. 50, part 3, 1904, p. 124) 

 gives the range of elevation as 1200 to 3300 m. Ridgely (in Htt.) col- 

 lected a female above the Fortuna Dam site, central Chiriqui, at 1150 m, 

 on February 27, 1976; the specimen is in the collection of the Gorgas 

 Memorial Laboratory. 



Apparently commoner in Costa Rica, this bird was first listed for 

 Panama by Salvadori and Festa (Bol. Mus. Zool. Anat. Comp. R. 

 Univ. Torino, vol. 14, no. 339, 1899, p. 3) on the basis of a specimen 

 collected by Arce labeled only Chiriqui. Bangs (Proc. New England 

 Zool. Club, vol. 3, 1902, p. 58) discusses specimens collected by W. W. 

 Brown, Jr., during January-May 1901 from Volcan de Chiriqui and 



