FAMILY TIIRAUPIDAK 



415 



group of 10 Silver-throated Tanagers attending an ant swarm on the 

 forest floor. Usually, however, they feed high in trees, where they move 

 rather slowly while searching the twigs and leaves for insects; at such 

 times they creep over the large limbs to inspect the underside where 

 they seek food. Among berry-bearing bushes in the undergrowth and 

 at forest edge they are often more active. Six collected by Strauch 

 (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, 1977, p. 65) weighed from 22.0 to 24.7 g. The 

 only notes I have heard from them are low, rather harsh chattering 

 sounds that are audible for short distances only. Ridgely ( 1976, p. 317) 

 also describes a buzzy bzeet. 



The species ranges from northern Costa Rica through Panama to 

 western Colombia and western Ecuador. Three races, distinguished 

 by depth of color, are recognized, all of them found in the Republic. 



TANGARA ICTEROCEPHALA FRANTZII (Cabanis) 



Call'upiza (Chrysothraupis) Frantzii Cabanis, 1861, Journ. Ornith., vol. 9, pt. 2, 

 p. 87. (Costa Rica.) 



Characters. — Crown and hindneck bright yellow, the latter crossed 

 by a partly concealed ring of pale greenish blue; foreneck and throat 

 paler. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Chiriqui), wing 72.6-79.7 (77.1), 

 tail 47.8-52.8 (48.4), culmen from base 11.0-12.6 (11.7), tarsus 16.9- 

 18.8 (17.8) mm. 



Females (10 from Chiriqui), wing 70.0-74.8 (72.5), tail 42.5-50.0 

 (46.3), culmen from base 11.0-12.4 ( 11.7), tarsus 17.2-18.8 (17.8) 

 mm. 



Resident. Common in the foothills and highlands of the Pacific 

 slope from the Costa Rican border through Chiriqui to eastern Vera- 

 guas, where it was collected at Santa Fe and Chitra in the 1860's by 

 Arce (Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, vol. 1 (pt. 26), 

 1883, p. 269). On the Volcan de Chiriqui, Monniche collected it be- 

 tween 1560 and 1920 m (Blake, Fieldiana: Zool., vol. 36, no. 5, 1958, 

 p. 565); W. W. Brown, Jr., collected it there and at Boquete between 

 1200 and 2250 m. There is 1 report to date from the Caribbean low- 

 lands, a male caught in a mist net at Finca Williams near Milla 2 on the 

 railroad near Almirante, on November 2, 1962, by personnel of the 

 Gorgas Memorial Laboratory. A record of a specimen collected by 

 J. H. Batty labeled "Cebaco Islands," far distant from the proper range 

 (Eisenmann, Auk, 1950, p. 365), is not accepted. Two specimens col- 

 lected by Arce in Veraguas at Calovevora and Santa Fe that are now 



