FAMILY PARULIDAE 



325 



found in pairs, and during January most of the specimens I obtained 

 were nearly ready to breed. 



Although the total length of the bill in the Coiba Island birds is only 

 slightly more than in mainland individuals, the breadth and general 

 bulk are appreciably greater. The darker color of this race is a general 

 tendency in the races endemic to Coiba. 



On April 13, 1976, Ridgely (in litt.) saw a pair on Coiba with two 

 fledged but still dependent young. He was interested to note that the 

 birds were common in forest undergrowth, a habitat in which they 

 would never be found in on the mainland. 



BASILEUTERUS FULVICAUDA (Spix): Buff-rumped Warbler, 

 Reinita de Rabadilla Anteada 



Figure 25 



Muscicapa fulvicauda Spix, 1825, Av. Spec. Nov. Brasil, 2, p. 20, pi. 28, fig. 2. 

 (Sao Paulo de Olivenga, Rio Solimoes, Brazil.) 



Small; upper surface dark olive; upper tail coverts and basal half of 

 rectrices buffy; outer half dark brown; undersurface buffy, marked 

 with dark olive. 



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

 blackish olive, becoming dark olive on rest of upper surface to upper 

 tail coverts, which are warm buff; wing coverts and remiges blackish, 

 edged dark olive; basal half of tail ochraceus-buff, outer half dark 

 brown; fine superciliary warm buff; undersurface white mottled with 

 varying degrees of warm buff and dark olive. 



Immature, like adult, but throat and breast heavily marked with dark 

 olive. 



There is little justification for separating this species and its ally B. 

 rivularis in the genus Phaeothlypis as was done by Lowery and Monroe 

 (in Peters, Check-list Birds World, vol. 14, 1968, p. 75). Todd (Proc. 

 U.S. Nat. Mus., no. 2752, 1929, p. 8) erected the genus Phaeothlypis 

 only for the forms here included in the species fulvicauda. The char- 

 acters he used to distinguish the genus were "bill relatively wider, . . . 

 tail relatively shorter, much less than the distance from the bend of the 

 wing to the end of the longest secondaries, . . . style of coloration very 

 different, the tail being always bicolor . . ." Hellmayr (Field Mus. Nat. 

 Hist. Zool., Cat. Birds. Amer. part 8, 1935, p. 522) did not recognize 

 Phaeothlypis for fulvicauda on account of the recognizably close re- 

 lationship of that species with rivularis, a species that Todd included in 

 Basilcuterus. None of Todd's characters for Phaeothlypis apply to B. 

 rivularis, in which the tail is longer and not bicolored, and in some 



