FAMILY ICTERIDAE 



351 



(129.0), tail 83.3-96.5 (89.7), oilmen from base 28.8-30.2 (29.6), tar- 

 sus 27.4-30.0 (28.8) mm. 



Females (10 from Panama), wing 109.7-117.3 (113.9), tail 77.5- 

 87.3 (80.4), oilmen from base 25.7-29.2 (27.5), tarsus 25.7-27.8 

 (26.9) mm. 



Resident. Found in forested areas in the lowlands of both slopes 

 from Chiriqui and Bocas del Toro to the eastern section of the Province 

 of Panama (Utive) and eastern San Bias (Perme, Puerto Obaldia), 

 ranging to 900 m in mountain areas (Santa Fe, Veraguas). To the 

 west and north this race ranges through Costa Rica to Nicaragua. In 

 Panama it is absent from the savanna areas of the Pacific slope and 

 there are no records from the Azuero Peninsula. Felling of the original 

 forest has greatly reduced their range in Chiriqui, where Brown secured 

 specimens at Divala in November and December, 1900 (Bangs, Auk, 

 1901, p. 370), and on the Pacific slope of Veraguas, where Arce found 

 it near Santiago (Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, vol. 1 

 (pt. 53), 1886, p. 442). There are specimens from Puerto Armuelles 

 and "Baru," Chiriqui, in the California Academy of Science taken by 

 M. E. Davidson in November 1929. There appear to be very few, per- 

 haps none, left in these areas today, although the bird is still fairly 

 common on the Caribbean slope. Ridgely (in litt.) is unaware of any 

 reports from Chiriqui or Pacific Veraguas other than above Santa Fe, 

 where several groups were seen in January 1974 at about 900 m. In 

 April 1980, Ridgely was struck by their abundance in the forests of the 

 Changuinola River in western Bocas del Toro. 



On March 25, 1949, I found a mated pair at Utive, in the foothills 

 of the Cerro Azul, Panama, and Arbib and Loetscher (Auk, 1935, p. 

 237) included this as one of the species noted as breeding in or near the 

 Canal Zone in July and August. On March 25, 1975, E. S. Morton and 

 Eisenmann saw a female on Achiote Road, Canal Zone, building a nest 

 hung from a tree branch, while in the same tree a male perched about 

 7 m away. On June 25, 1952, Eisenmann and J. Bull found a nest be- 

 ing built on a vine growing on a bridge between Fort Sherman and Fort 

 San Lorenzo, Canal Zone. 



Skutch (Pub. Nutt. Orn. Club, no. 10, 1972, pp. 173-181) has studied 

 the species in Costa Rica, where he found that, unlike Cacicus cela and 

 the oropendolas, C. uropygialis is monogamous and nests solitarily; 

 other characters it shares with Icterus rather than the larger species are 

 singing by the female and feeding of the nestlings by the male. N. G. 

 Smith (in litt. to Eisenmann) found that birds about Almirante, Bocas 



