204 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



In the original description, written 80 years ago, when relatively few 

 specimens were available, Hartert compared the Coiba bird with the 

 race of Cozumel Island, off the coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico, which 

 was suggested by the duller colors of coibae. Actually, the subspecies 

 of Coiba Island is more closely similar to the forms of the Panamanian 

 mainland, from which it differs in very decidedly darker, duller colors, 

 the breast and sides being distinctly greenish instead of bright yellow, 

 the dorsal surface duller green, and the crown browner. The type speci- 

 men (American Museum of Natural History), taken by Batty April 

 20, 1901, an immature bird as is shown by the dark, almost black, bill, 

 is browner on the crown than adult specimens. 



SMARAGDOLANIUS PULCHELLUS (Sclater and Salvin) : 

 Green Shrike-Vireo, Follajero Verde 



Figure 19 



Vireolanius pulchellns P.L. Sclater and Salvin, 1859, Ibis, p. 12. (Guatemala.) 



Large for a vireo; heavy-headed with stout, hooked bill; bright green 

 with blue on hindneck and sometimes on head, and yellow throat. 



Description. — Length 126-144 mm. Adult (sexes alike), sides of 

 head, face, and all of upper surface, brilliant parrot green, except blue 

 hindneck and (depending on race) sometimes crown or forehead; 

 abdomen and undertail coverts pale lemon yellow; edge of wing and 

 underwing coverts, pale lemon yellow. 



The Green Shrike-Vireo is a common bird wherever it occurs in 

 lowlands and foothills mainly on the Pacific slope, but it rarely descends 

 from the tops of tall trees in forest and second-growth woodland, so it 

 is usually not noticed by those who do not know its three- or four-note 

 whistled song, which it delivers constantly. Occasionally it joins a 

 mixed flock of insectivorous birds and descends to lower levels. Pan- 

 ama is the southern limit of its range, which extends north to south- 

 eastern Mexico. 



Lawrence (Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. New York, vol. 7, 1862, p. 468) 

 received a specimen from McLeannan in 1862 and was the first to 

 record this species from Panama, but not until 1905, when Ridgway 

 described the race viridiceps from McLeannan's specimen (Proc. Biol. 

 Soc. Washington, vol. 16, 1903, p. 108), was it recognized that two 

 forms exist in the Republic: one in the west with a blue forehead 

 (verticalis) , the other in the central and eastern region (viridiceps) , 

 with a green forehead matching the crown. The difficulty of collecting 



