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BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



LEISTES MILITARIS MILITARIS (Linnaeus): Red-breasted 

 Blackbird, Change- Pechirrojo 



E.[mberisa] militaris Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, p. 178. (Surinam.) 



Medium size; male, all black except for red throat, breast, belly, and 

 lesser wing coverts (often all feathers are edged with buff) ; female, up- 

 per surface blackish, streaked buff, undersurface mostly buff, some- 

 times with reddish wash on belly. 



Description. — Length 139-172 mm. Adult male, entirely black ex- 

 cept for throat, breast, belly, lesser wing coverts, and bend of wing, 

 which are scarlet-red; during much of the year most feathers are edged 

 various shades of dark brown and buff, especially prominently on the 

 head, which may have superciliary and central crown stripes. 



Adult female, upper surface blackish with feathers edged buff; buffy 

 superciliary and central crown stripes usually prominent; remiges and 

 rectrices barred brown; bend of wing and a few lesser wing coverts pale 

 red; undersurface cinnamon-buff, streaked dark brown, faintly on 

 breast and heavily on abdomen; belly tinged pale red. 



A male collected at El Real, Darien, on January 22, 1964, had the 

 iris dark brown; bill dull black; tarsus and toes wood brown; claws dull 

 black. 



A female taken there the same day had the iris wood brown; maxilla 

 fuscous-brown, except cutting edge, which was light dull brown; tip of 

 mandible dull neutral gray, changing to dull buffy brown on basal half 

 of gonys; basal half of mandible pale dull brown. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Panama), wing 87.0-97.0 (91.5), 

 tail 53.7-61.4 (57.6), culmen from base 19.6-21.4 (20.5), tarsus 27.2- 



32.3 (29.2) mm. 



Females (10 from Panama and Colombia), wing 78.0-87.0 (82.8), 

 tail 47.1-57.4 (52.0), culmen from base 17.4-19.3 (18.4), tarsus 25.9- 



28.4 (27.0) mm. 



Resident. Common in savannas and large fields in lowlands of the 

 Pacific slope from Chiriqui, where it is numerous at Puerto Armuelles, 

 to eastern Darien, at least as far east as El Real, where I collected sev- 

 eral in 1964. With the expansion of grassy areas this species has ex- 

 tended its range. In 1972 Jaime Pujals found and photographed a flock 

 of 18 birds at France Field, on the Caribbean side of the Canal Zone. 

 More recently this species has also been seen at Gatun Dam and Esco- 

 bal, Canal Zone (Ridgely, in litt.). This race also occurs in Costa Rica 

 (Kiff, Condor, 1975, pp. 102-103), Colombia, northern Peru, Vene- 

 zuela, the Guianas, and Amazonian Brazil; another race is found in 

 southeastern Peru and Bolivia south to northern Argentina. The Red- 



