3 8o 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



buff and brown, giving a streaked appearance; superciliary and central 

 crown stripe light buff; wings and central tail feathers black, edged and 

 barred brown and buff; outer four pairs of tail feathers white, partially 

 barred on outer web; side of face whitish; thin loral stripe extending 

 around upper rim of eye, throat, breast, belly, and bend of wing yellow, 

 brightest on throat; chest with a black crescent, sometimes tipped light 

 buff; sides, flanks, and undertail coverts light buff, streaked with black; 

 underwing coverts whitish. 



A male collected at Rio Grande, Code, on March 9, 1962, had the iris 

 warm mouse brown; mandible except tip and lower edge of side of 

 maxilla to near tip neutral gray; side of maxilla through nostril and en- 

 tire tip, and tip of mandible fuscous-black; flattened culmen to near tip 

 dull grayish brown; tarsus and toes light brownish white; claws fus- 

 cous. A female taken the same day was similar. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Panama), wing 97.5-105.5 

 (101.7), tail 54.4-66.6 (60.9), culmen from base 29.6-35.3 (32.8), 

 tarsus 32.4-42.0 (38.0) mm. 



Females (10 from Panama), wing 89.5-96.0 (91.8), tail 51.2-57.1 

 (53.9), culmen from base 27.6-31.7 (30.0), tarsus 33.0-36.9 (35.4) 

 mm. 



Resident. Common in the lowlands of the Pacific slope from Chiri- 

 qui to eastern Province of Panama (to around El Llano in the middle 

 Bayano Valley), inhabiting moist savannas, fields, and grasslands; less 

 common in the highlands of Chiriqui, where W. W. Brown, Jr., col- 

 lected several specimens between 1200 and 1800 m at Boquete. Other 

 races are found from eastern North America to northern Colombia, 

 Venezuela, and Brazil. The habits of this species are, so far as I can 

 tell, very like those of Eastern Meadowlarks in North America. Their 

 song is of particular interest since it seems to combine elements of vS\ 

 magna from eastern North America and of S. neglecta. I found that 

 in the Panamanian form the notes in general are those of 5*. magna, 

 while the tone is that of S. neglecta; in other words, it is the song of the 

 eastern bird with the sound effects of the western one. Chapman (My 

 Tropical Air Castle, 1929, p. 378) came to the same conclusion. 

 Ridgely (1976, p. 312) mentions also "a very different warbled song 

 tleeoo-tleedleeoo." One of the local names I have been given in Her- 

 rera and the Province of Panama is chirolirio, in evident imitation of 

 the song. Call notes include a loud chatter, a chip, and a harsh, nazal 

 dzeert or chzeerrrt. 



I know of no descriptions of the nest or eggs of this species from 

 Panama. The breeding season here runs at least from January to No- 



