314 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



including wing coverts, yellowish olive; remiges and rectrices dusky 

 with outer webs edged yellowish olive; line through eye and auriculars 

 largely black (except in tacarcunae); patches below eye and on side 

 of neck buff; throat whitish; sides of breast, sides, and flanks light 

 yellowish olive; rest of undersurface light yellow; underwing coverts 

 white, tinged yellow. 



The Three-striped Warbler is a montane bird found from Costa Rica 

 to northern Venezuela and northern Bolivia. Three races have been 

 recognized in Panama, melanotis, chitrensis, and tacarcunae. Exami- 

 nation of specimens of chitrensis, including the 14 taken by R. R. Ben- 

 son at Chitra, Veraguas, from which the race was described by Gris- 

 com (Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 280, 1927, p. 13) shows that it differs 

 slightly in a series, but single individuals are not separable in some 

 cases. Some specimens from Chitra show a somewhat darker chest, 

 but lighter ones cannot be separated from melanotis. As there is no 

 natural barrier between the birds of the Veraguas highlands and those 

 of Chiriqui belonging to melanotis, the Veraguas population seems too 

 poorly differentiated to merit subspecific status. 



This species is found in highland forest and woodland, where it 

 moves through the lower level of trees, in thickets, and undergrowth, 

 usually traveling in mixed species flocks. Its vocalizations include "a 

 rushing series of chipping or 'tsitting' twitters composed of weakly 

 clipping dry notes sprinkled at times with squeaky and harsh ones," as 

 well as single notes (Slud, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 128, 1964, 

 p. 334). 



The breeding behavior of this species has been investigated by Wil- 

 liam H. Buskirk in Costa Rica. He found that the female constructs 

 the nest and performs all the incubation herself. The male, however, 

 participates in feeding the nestlings, and when the young are fledged 

 each parent takes full responsibility for a single offspring. Ridgely 

 (in litt.) transcribed the song of a bird at Cerro Jefe as "a very fast, 

 high, jumbled tidedeteeadedecheeaweea!' ; he also heard the bird give 

 single notes as a contact call. 



BASILEUTERUS TRISTRIATUS MELANOTIS Lawrence 



Basileuterus melanotis Lawrence, 1868, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. New York, vol. 9, 



April, p. 95. (Cervantes, Costa Rica.) 

 Basileuterns tristriatus chitrensis Griscom, 1927, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 280, p. 



13. (Chitra, 4,000 ft. Pacific slope of Veraguas, Panama.) 



Characters. — Auriculars black; central crown stripe grayish buffy; 

 broad superciliary stripe pale buffy gray. 



