318 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



On April 19 the young hatched; they had pink skin with sparse gray 

 down. The young were fed mature and larval insects, and by their 

 seventh day pin feathers had sprouted. These were open at 9 days, and 

 the following day the young "exploded" from the nest when Skutch 

 approached. At this time their feathers were still short, but the birds 

 could fly a few feet and were led off by their parents. 



BASILEUTERUS MELANOGENYS Baird: Black-cheeked Warbler, 

 Reinita Carisucia 



Small; crown striped chestnut and white; rest of upper surface gray- 

 ish green; undersurface buffy white. 



Description. — Length 123-132 mm. Adult (sexes alike), forehead 

 and very thin stripe on side of crown black; central crown area chest- 

 nut, blackish at nape; rest of upper surface olive, becoming more 

 greenish on rump; wings and tail dusky, with coverts tipped and remi- 

 ges and rectrices edged yellowish olive; superciliary extending to nape 

 white or pale yellowish; lores, orbital and auricular region black; sides 

 of chin black, flecked white, central chin more white; throat whitish; 

 broad breast band gray; sides, flanks, and abdomen olive; rest of under- 

 surface buffy white; underwing coverts gray. 



This species is found only in the highlands of Costa Rica and Pan- 

 ama, where in western Chiriqui it is common in forest, woodlands, and 

 in brushy areas at the edge of pasture, while in Veraguas and in eastern 

 Darien it is very local and only poorly known. I have found the Black- 

 cheeked Warbler only in Chiriqui, where I have seen it in heavy forest 

 and in brush along a small stream running through rough pastureland; 

 it feeds in low undergrowth, often barely above the ground, up to mid- 

 dle tree branches, usually moving in pairs. Skutch (Publ. Nutt. Orn. 

 Club, no. 7, 1967, pp. 154-159) has studied this species in Costa Rica, 

 and notes that it sings much less frequently than other species of Basil- 

 euterus; he describes the song as slight and lisping. The bird also has 

 weak chip call. 



Buskirk et al. (Auk, 1972, p. 620) found that at Cerro Punta, Chiri- 

 qui, the Black-cheeked Warbler was a short-term follower of the mixed 

 species flocks that passed through its territory. Eisenmann (in litt.) 

 only very occasionally saw this species with mixed species bands, and 

 with these it usually foraged low; once only did he observe 1 well up in 

 a tree. 



Three subspecies are currently recognized (all 3 found in Panama), 

 nominate melanogenys, bensoni, and ignotus. The last two were treated 

 as full species by Todd (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 74, art. 7, 1929, pp. 



