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BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



that, to my ear, sounds coarser and louder than the Bananaquits of 

 Puerto Rico or Hispaniola. This bird is quite fearless, approaching 

 and even entering houses where it is given sugar; once, at Almirante, 

 Bocas del Toro, one sought loose feathers near my skinning table. 



COEREBA FLAVEOLA MEXICANA (Sclater) 



Certhiola mexicana P. L. Sclater, 1857, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 24 (1856), p. 286. 

 (Cordoba, Veracruz, Mexico.) 



Characters. — Rump more greenish yellow, less extensive than in 

 columbiana; back dark gray, less blackish than in other Panama races. 



A male taken on Isla Brincanco in the Islas Contreras off the Pacific 

 coast of Veraguas on March 23, 1962, had the iris dark brown; bill 

 black; tarsus and toes neutral gray; claws black. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro, and 

 Veraguas), wing 49.8-56.8 (54.6), tail 31.2-39.4 (33.9), culmen from 

 base 12.4-15.1 (13.5), tarsus 14.5-17.3 (16.4) mm. 



Females (10 from Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro, and Veraguas), wing 

 49.7-53.8 (51.4), tail 27.8-33.2 (29.7), culmen from base 12.5-14.1 

 (13.4), tarsus 14.1-17.1 (15.8) mm. 



Resident. Common in gardens, clearings, light woodlands, and for- 

 est edges where there are flowers in the lowlands and foothills of Chiri- 

 qui, Bocas del Toro, and islands off the Pacific coast of western Pan- 

 ama, as far east as Isla Coiba, the adjacent Isla Rancheria, and the Isla 

 Contreras. I have found it as high as 1560 m on the Silla de Cerro 

 Pando near El Volcan, Chiriqui, on March 3, 1954. Leek and Hilty 

 (Condor, 1968, p. 105) netted 1 at 1200 m below El Volcan, Chiriqui, 

 on April 25, 1968; the clearing of this area, which formerly was sub- 

 tropical forest, may have permitted the Bananaquit's upward expan- 

 sion. The range of this race is from southeastern Mexico (Veracruz 

 and Oaxaca) south through central America to western Panama. 



The Bananaquit seems to nest nearly throughout the year. During 

 my visits to Panama between December and March I have collected 

 adults in breeding condition or seen juveniles in every month. Skutch 

 (Pacific Coast Avif. no. 31, 1954, pp. 404-420) has found a decrease in 

 nesting activity in Costa Rica at the end of the dry season and begin- 

 ning of the wet season, when flowers are scarcest. The nest itself is 

 distinct from that of any other honeycreeper and, indeed, from all other 

 Central American birds. It is a thick-walled, globular structure with a 

 small entrance on one side, built of coarse vegetable fibers, grass blades, 



