452 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



10) and at Cana, by E. A. Goldman. This race is also found in Costa 

 Rica; other races occur from the southwestern United States to Bolivia, 

 northern Argentina, and Uruguay. 



At Cerro Campana, I noted that this was one of the common birds 

 at the edge of forest or where trees are rather open; here it ranged 

 fairly high, but occasionally came down into the lower branches. I 

 found this species somewhat shy and difficult to observe, although dur- 

 ing the month of March, to which my encounters with it were limited, 

 I heard it calling almost constantly wherever it occurred. Calls given 

 year round include a high-pitched chip-i-ty, chip-i-ty, chicky-tick-tick; 

 the song is a series of rising and falling phrases, like a typical Piranga 

 but higher pitched. On March 18, 1950, at Cerro Chucanti, they seemed 

 to be preparing to breed, as I found them in pairs and males appeared 

 to be on territory, ffrench (A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and 

 Tobago, 1973, p. 415) records a Trinidad nest "made of dry grass, 

 situated amidst the sprouting vegetation of a trimmed forest tree at the 

 edge of a clearing 20 ft. above ground. The 2 eggs were greenish, 

 spotted with brown. Both parents fed the young." One that Goldman 

 collected at Cana contained a phasmid 25%, a tenebrionid 10%, a bee 

 10%, about 100 seeds not determined 55%. Cruden and Hermann 

 (Auk, 1977, p. 594) observed Hepatic Tanagers chasing orioles away 

 from feeding trees in Mexico. A male collected by Strauch (Bull. Brit. 

 Orn. Club, 1977, p. 65) weighed 36.7 g. 



Ridgely (in litt.) has noticed that on Cerro Azul this is one of the 

 few tanagers to persist in heavily disturbed agricultural areas with 

 patches of thinned woodland. In the areas where most of the scarcer 

 Tangara species and others were still found into the late 1960's, now 

 only this remains in any numbers. 



PIRANGA RUBRA RUBRA (Linnaeus): Summer Tanager, 

 Frutero Comeabejas 



Fringilla rubra Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, p. 181. (South Carolina.) 



Medium size; adult male, upper surface rosy red; undersurface 

 slighty lighter; female, upper surface yellowish green; undersurface 

 dull yellow; immature male like female with irregular red splotches. 



Description. — Length 158-168 mm. Adult male, upper surface, in- 

 cluding wing coverts and tail, rosy red; remiges dusky with outer webs 

 edged rosy red; undersurface pinkish red; underwing coverts pink. 



Adult female, upper surface yellowish green; more yellow on fore- 

 crown; remiges dusky yellow; tail brownish yellow; undersurface and 

 underwing coverts dull yellow. 



