342 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



tirely from the drier parts of the Azuero Peninsula and from southern 

 Code. This species has been recorded in the foothills as high as 1350 

 m (Ridgely,T976, p. 306); Frank Hartman collected a female at El 

 Volcan (1230 m), Chiriqui (now in the collection of Ohio State Uni- 

 versity) and I have seen them feeding in a banana plantation at 1200 m 

 at Santa Clara, Chiriqui. 



Figure 28. — Chesnut-headed Oropendola, Chacarero Comun, Psarocolius wagleri, 



male. 



The populations from Nicaragua southward have in the past been 

 recognized under the name ridgwayi and are supposed to be charac- 

 terized by paler coloration. The series in the Smithsonian collection 

 indicates that if there is a point of demarcation between northern and 

 southern populations, it is somewhere south of Panama, whereas birds 

 from Mexico through Panama do not show any geographic variation. 

 Therefore, ridgwayi becomes a synonym of wagleri. There is as yet 

 insufficient material from South America for further nomenclatural 

 action. 



This is the most widespread oropendola in Panama. Its nest colonies, 

 sometimes with as many as a hundred long, globular pouches hanging 

 from an isolated tree or grove, often on the side of a well-traveled 

 highway or even in front of a building (as at Coco Solo Hospital), are 



