3 o8 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA — PART 4 



is less numerous in the highlands than at lower elevations. Ridgely (in 

 lift. ) has found it more common in mangroves than any other habitat 

 in winter. Eisenmann has seen it on migration in the semi-arid, rather 

 scrubby western part of the Province of Panama near the coast at 

 Playa Coronado, on August 19-26, 1947, (2-4 birds daily) and at Santa 

 Clara Beach. 



MYIOBORUS MINIATUS (Swainson): Slate-throated Redstart, 

 Candelita Gargantigris 



Setophaga miniata Swainson, 1827, Philos. Mag., new ser., 1, fasc. 5, p. 368. 

 (Morelia, Michoacan.) 



Small; upper surface and throat dark gray, with chestnut patch in 

 center of crown; undersurface yellow. 



Description. — Length 118-128 mm. Adult (sexes alike), upper sur- 

 face, wings, head and throat slate color (throat dark, sometimes black) ; 

 center of crown chestnut; tail black, with outer pair of rectrices nearly 

 all white, second pair with distal half white, third pair white only at 

 tip; undertail coverts white; rest of undersurface yellow; underwing 

 coverts white. 



Juvenile, head, back, rump, and foreneck sooty slate; upper breast 

 and sides washed with dull rufous; lower breast, abdomen, and under- 

 tail coverts cinnamon; wings and tail like adults. 



The Slate-throated Redstart is very common in woodlands, forests, 

 and even borders and gardens adjacent to clearings in the highlands of 

 Chiriqui and Veraguas and in eastern Darien. It moves about like 

 Setophaga ruticilla, opening and shutting its tail both while perched and 

 in flight, so that the white on the outer feathers is conspicuous. I have 

 found these birds high in the tree crowns, in the undergrowth, and on 

 the ground, where they occasionally drop when pursuing prey. Leek 

 (Living Bird, 1971, p. 91) found that at Cerro Punta, Chiriqui, they 

 spent 45 percent of their time in the upper middle section of trees and 

 another 40 percent in the lower middle. Their food is almost exclu- 

 sively insect material, but Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif. no. 31, 1954, p. 

 358) has observed them eating the little white protein bodies that are 

 found at the base of the petioles of leaves on Cecropia trees. The Slate- 

 throated Redstart sings throughout the year, although less often 

 between October and January; it has "several usually squeaky or 

 sibilant songs, sometimes suggestive of American Redstart, tseeweech, 

 sweeswee, sweech-sweechee, or tseeoo-tseeoo, cheewee-cheewee-tsee" 

 (Ridgely, 1976, p. 303). 



This species is found from northern Mexico through Middle Amer- 



