I76 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



Boquete. Blake, cited above, gives several western Chiriqui localities 

 as well as the single record from Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean 

 slope. In 1924 Griscom reported 4 specimens in extreme eastern Chiri- 

 qui, at Cerro Flores ( 1800 m) , nearer the mountains of Veraguas than 

 to the Volcan de Chiriqui. He described these as a new race, minor 

 (Am. Mus. Nov., no. 141, 1924, p. 8), "similar to the typical form from 

 Costa Rica, but averaging smaller; male not differing in color; female 

 with hind-neck more extensively gray of a slightly darker shade; rump, 

 upper tail-coverts, and edgings to tail feathers slightly greener, less 

 yellow." In 1926 Benson collected at Chitra from 1290 to 1500 m on 

 the Pacific slope in Veraguas, the farthest east from which this bird is 

 known; Griscom (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 78, 1935, p. 363) as- 

 signed these to minor. The race minor has generally not been admitted 

 (e.g., Greenway, in Peters, Check-list Birds World, vol. 9, 1960, p. 

 373) , and its invalidity was confirmed by Pasquier and Olson on exami- 

 nation of specimens from both of the series attributed to minor. 



I have never encountered this bird myself, and most of what is 

 known of its biology comes from Skutch's work in Costa Rica (Auk, 

 1965, p. 420-422), where in 1963 he observed them near the western 

 end of the massif of the extinct Volcan Barba, in the Cordillera Central. 

 Here he found them from 2040 to 2250 m, usually within the edge of 

 the forest, where the canopy was broken by the removal of a few trees, 

 and in adjoining shady pasture. They moved about mainly in the mid- 

 dle levels of the tall oaks, flying out from exposed branches to catch 

 insects and then continuing on to another branch, unlike many flycatch- 

 ing birds which return to their initial perch. Fruit is also an important 

 part of their diet; Skutch found them eating the berries of Drimys 

 winteri, Bocconia frutescens, Monnina, and Ardisia. They pick the 

 fruit either while perched on the plant or while fluttering in front of it. 



Black-and-yellow Silky-flycatchers are far less social than Long- 

 tailed Silky-flycatchers, which in fact they hardly resemble. They are 

 usually found singly or in pairs, and are less active, never catching fly- 

 ing insects with the acrobatic manoeuvers of Ptilogonys. The only calls 

 that Skutch heard were "a weak chip rather like a wood warbler's note" 

 given by a male and "low, soft notes" from a foraging pair. 



The nest and eggs of Phainoptila were unknown until 1972, when 

 they were discovered in Costa Rica by Lloyd Kiff. With F. G. Stiles 

 and B. K. MacKay, he found a nest on May 2 at 2400 m on Volcan 

 Boas, Alajuela Province; it was 1.5 m from the ground in the central 

 crotch of a 2-m sapling, in a thicket so dense as to make the nest in- 



