FAMILY PARULIDAE 



257 



migrant warblers. The song, in Chiriqui "a buzzy trill, typically tsip- 

 tsip-tsip-tsip-tsip-tsrrrrrrrrrrip, with variations" (Ridgely, 1976, p. 

 292) , is delivered throughout the day, and through many months of the 

 nonbreeding season, when most other birds are silent. 



PARULA PITIAYUMI SPECIOSA (Ridgway) 



Compsothlypis pitiayumi speciosa Ridgway, 1902, Auk, 19, p. 69. (Boquete, Chiri- 

 qui, Panama.) 



Characters. — Sides of face blackish; lower throat and breast orange- 

 ochraceous; abdomen yellow; one short white wing bar or spot formed 

 by tipping on the greater wing coverts. 



A male collected March 22, 1965, at El Volcan, Chiriqui, had the iris 

 dark brown, cutting edge of maxilla and mandible light yellow; rest of 

 maxilla black; tarsus dull brown; toes dull honey yellow; claws dull 

 grayish brown. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Chiriqui and Costa Rica), wing 

 49.0-55.0 (52.0), tail 36.7-41.0 (38.5), culmen from base 9.6-11.5 

 (10.5), tarsus 15.0-16.9 (15.9) mm. 



Females (9 from Chiriqui), wing 48.0-49.9 (49.0), tail 34.9-38.8 

 (36.9), culmen from base 9.6-11.1 (10.3, average of 8), tarsus 14.6- 

 16.4 (15.4) mm. 



Resident. Fairly common in forests in the lower highlands of 

 Chiriqui and in the foothills of Veraguas and Herrera. W. W. Brown, 

 Jr. (Bangs, Proc. New England Zool. Club, vol. 3, 1902, p. 63) col- 

 lected it at Boquete, Chiriqui between 1000 and 1350 m, and Monniche 

 (Blake, Fieldiana: Zool., vol. 36, no. 5, 1958, p. 558) found it at vari- 

 ous localities on the Volcan de Chiriqui between 1560 and 1920 m. An 

 unusual record is the specimen taken by J. W. Batty on Brava Island, 

 off the coast of Chiriqui on January 28, 1902, but like many Batty speci- 

 mens this is probably erroneously labeled (Eisenmann, Auk, 1950, p. 

 364) . In Veraguas and Herrera it has been recorded from 450 to 600 

 m; Arce collected it in Veraguas at Colobre (Salvin and Godman, Biol. 

 Centr.-Amer., Aves, vol. 1, (pt. 6), 1880, p. 120). 



Nothing has been published on this species' nesting behavior in Pan- 

 ama, but Skutch (Nutt. Orn. Club, no. 7, 1967, pp. 143-146) has found 

 a nest of P. p. speciosa in Costa Rica. On May 6, 1964, he observed a 

 female carrying material to a cushion of green moss about 10 m up on a 

 nearly vertical branch of a tree in a grove near heavy forest; the nest 

 was within the cushion of moss, with a round entrance on the side. 

 Skutch never saw the eggs from this nest, but mentions that in Trini- 

 dad they have "an almost glossless white ground . . . [and are] spotted 



