4i8 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



edged light blue; remiges black, with outer webs edged brownish yel- 

 low; tail black; throat glossy reddish brown; flanks light bluish violet 

 becoming lighter blue; rest of undersurface white; bend of wing light 

 bluish violet; underwing coverts white. 



Juvenile, lores, orbital region, and chin black, edged light blue; rest 

 of crown, nape, sides of face green; upper back black; lower back 

 through upper tail coverts light green; wings and tail black, with 

 feathers edged yellowish green, slightly duller on coverts; throat buffy; 

 breast and sides becoming black; rest of undersurface buffy white. 



The Golden-hooded Tanager exhibits essentially clinal variation in 

 its range from southern Mexico to western Colombia and north- 

 western Ecuador. The extremes in this cline differ considerably. The 

 northern, nominate race is the most richly colored, with the throat deep 

 rufous, the back of the crown and the hindneck deep golden, the cheeks 

 deep blue, and the wing feathers including the primary coverts edged 

 prominently with green or greenish yellow and the flanks deep blue. 

 The southernmost race, T. I. fanny, has the throat, back of the crown 

 and hindneck paler, the cheeks light blue, and the edgings on the wings 

 nearly absent, and the flanks turquoise. Two rather variable, slightly 

 differentiated stages in the areas in between have been recognized 

 nomenclaturally. 



In recent writings some have followed Hellmayr (Field Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., Zool. ser., vol. 13, pt. 9, 1936, pp. 126-131) in placing these birds 

 as races of Tangara nigrocincta of north-central South America, a 

 course that does not appear appropriate. This bird differs from the 

 larvata group completely in the almost lavender crown, hindneck, 

 throat, and foreneck, green rather than blue cheeks, and the much 

 broader blue-green edgings to the wing coverts. The only resemblance, 

 other than that of a generic nature, is in the general color pattern. T. 

 nigrocincta lacks the bright golden rufous of the throat and the promi- 

 nent golden color of the back of the head and neck of larvata, this dif- 

 ference being trenchant and with no evidence of intergradation. 



Tangara larvata is common in clearings, second-growth woodland, 

 and forest borders in lowlands and foothills. It is usually found in 

 trees, but once at Chiman, Panama, I came across 2 in bushes at the 

 edge of a pool where they had come down to drink, and at Almirante, 

 Bocas del Toro, I once found 1 low down in weeds. Five collected by 

 Strauch (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, 1977, p. 65) weighed from 17.1 to 23.9 

 g. This species feeds on insects and berries and other small fruit. Leek 

 (Living Bird, 1971, p. 92) noted the amount of time several fruit- 

 eating birds spent in different parts of a tree with Oryctanthus berries 



