FAMILY PARULIDAE 



ica to Guyana, northern Brazil, and Bolivia. In Panama the birds of 

 the western highlands belong to the race aurantiacus and those of 

 Darien are of the race hallux. 



MYIOBORUS MINIATUS AURANTIACUS (Baird) 



Setophaga aurantiaca Baird, 1865, Rev. Amer. Birds, 1, p. 261. (Dota Mountains, 



San Jose and Barranca, Costa Rica.) 

 Myioborus miniatus acceptus Bangs, 1908, Proc. New England Zool. Club, 4, p. 



30. (Boquete, 4000 ft., Volcan de Chiriqui, Panama.) 



Characters. — Chestnut crown patch bordered by black stripes; un- 

 dersurface slightly darker yellow. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Chiriqui), wing 61.0-68.8 (63.2), 

 tail 57.1-63.7 (61.3), culmen from base 10.6-13.0 (11.9), tarsus 16.3- 

 19.6 (17.8) mm. 



Females (10 from Chiriqui), wing 58.0-67.5 (60.9), tail 54.2-62.8 

 (58.2), culmen from base 10.6-12.2 (11.3), tarsus 16.7-18.6 (17.7) 

 mm. 



Resident. Very common in the highlands of Chiriqui and Veraguas. 

 Found also in the Cordillera de Talamanca of eastern Costa Rica; 

 Monniche collected it on the Volcan de Chiriqui between 1590 and 

 1890 m (Blake, Fieldiana: Zool, vol. 36, no. 5, 1958, p. 561 ) and W. W. 

 Brown, Jr., found it from 1200 to 1350 m at Boquete, Chiriqui, during 

 January and February of 1901 (Bangs. Proc. New England Zool. 

 Club, vol. 3, 1902, p. 61). It is common in the regenerating woodland 

 around the Volcan lakes (1200 m). Griscom (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 

 vol. 78, 1935, p. 369) said it occurred above 1050 m. At Cerro Punta, 

 Chiriqui, I found it rather uncommon at 2100 m during March 1955; I 

 believe this must be about the upper limit of its range. The only locality 

 in Veraguas from which I know of a specimen is Calovevora, where 

 Arce collected a male, now in the British Museum, on 1867. In early 

 January 1974, Ridgely (in litt.) found it fairly common along the road 

 north of Santa Fe (900-1160 m). 



On March 3, 1954, I saw that males were in pursuit of females at 

 El Volcan, Chiriqui, and in 1960 I found that they were always in pairs 

 there on February 24. In 1965 I collected a male in breeding condition 

 at El Volcan on February 27. Further details of breeding behavior 

 come from Costa Rica, where Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif. no. 31, 1954, 

 pp. 357-365) has found several nests, always on the ground. Most that 

 Skutch found were in a cranny in a bank, but others were placed on a 

 fallen log amid dense vegetation and on a steep slope, also well sheltered 

 by vegetation. The nest is a roofed structure composed of straws, dried 



