FAMILY PARULIDAE 



3*9 



79-80), although this treatment was not generally followed. The 

 Check-list Committee of the American Ornithologists' Union (Check- 

 list of North American Birds, 6th ed., 1983, p. 627) has recently re- 

 elevated ignotus to the rank of species, but there is no justification for 

 this. 



BASILEUTERUS MELANOGENYS MELANOGENYS Baird 



Basileuterus melanogenys Baird, 1865, Rev. Amer. Birds, 1, p. 248. (Costa Rica.) 

 Basileuterus melanogenys eximius Nelson, 1912. Smiths. Misc. Coll., 60(3), p. 22. 

 (Boquete, 5,000 ft., Chiriqui, Panama.) 



Characters. — Superciliary white; side of head black. 



A male taken February 24, 1965, at Volcan de Chiriqui, Chiriqui, 

 had the iris dark brown; cutting edge of maxilla and all of mandible 

 flesh color; rest of maxilla fuscous-brown; tarsus and toes pale brown- 

 ish white; claws dull neutral gray. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Chiriqui), wing 56.5-66.5 (61.1), 

 tail 58.1-62.3 (60.4), oilmen from base 10.3-12.7 (11.7), tarsus 20.0- 

 23.0 (21.7) mm. 



Females (10 from Chiriqui), wing 58.8-62.1 (60.3), tail 54.7-61.0 

 (58.6), culmen from base 11.3-12.7 (11.9), tarsus 20.7-23.5 (21.9) 

 mm. 



Resident. Common in forests, woodlands, and borders in the high- 

 lands of western Chiriqui, and in adjacent Costa Rica. In Panama 

 B. m. melanogenys has been collected at Cerro Punta, the Volcan de 

 Chiriqui, and Boquete. Ridgely (in litt.) has found it more numerous 

 near Boquete, on the wetter side of the mountain, than above Cerro 

 Punta. From February to May of 1901 W. W. Brown, Jr., collected 

 11 specimens at Boquete and Volcan de Chiriqui between 1350 and 3060 

 m (Bangs, Proc. New England Zool. Club, vol. 3, 1902, p. 60); Mon- 

 niche found it at Volcan de Chiriqui between 1560 and 2760 m (Blake, 

 Fieldiana: Zool., vol. 36, no. 5, 1958, p. 562). 



The population of the Chiriqui highlands was originally described 

 under the name eximius by E. W. Nelson (Smiths. Misc. Coll., vol. 60, 

 no. 3, 1912, p. 22), but, in examination of a large series from Chiriqui, 

 this population was found to be inseparable from nominate melano- 

 genys of Costa Rica. There are differences that appear to be due to 

 specimen age — older specimens from Chiriqui are burner below and less 

 grayish on the back than fresher specimens and they thus resemble the 

 Costa Rican birds in the Smithsonian series, all of which are older. 

 Comparison of fresh material from both localities is desirable. 



