5 o8 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



CONIROSTRUM LEUCOGENYS LEUCOGENYS (Lafresnaye) : 

 White-eared Conebill, Mielero Piquiagudo 



Dacnis leucogenys Lafresnaye, 1852, Rev. Mag. Zool. (2), 4, p. 470. ("Columbia" 

 = Bogota.) 



Ateleodacnis leucogenys panamensis Griscom, 1927, Amer. Mus. Novit., no. 282, 

 p. 9. (Cape Garachine, eastern Panama.) 



Very small; male with black crown, white auriculars, rest of body 

 blue-gray; female with upper surface blue-gray, undersurface dingy 

 buff. 



Description. — Length 80-83 mm. Adult male, lores and crown shin- 

 ing black; rest of upper surface dark bluish gray, sometimes tinged 

 with blackish, with a few white feathers sometimes exposed on upper 

 tail coverts; wing coverts black, tipped dark bluish gray; remiges 

 black, with white at base of outer web of middle primaries and all 

 outer webs edged with blue-gray; rectrices black, edged blue-gray; 

 underside of orbital area and auriculars white; throat and upper breast 

 much paler gray, becoming lighter on rest of undersurface and white 

 on center of abdomen; undertail coverts rufous chestnut; underwing 

 coverts dark gray and white. 



Adult female, entire upper surface similar to male, but duller (no 

 black crown) and often tinged with olive; orbital ring white; under- 

 surface and ear coverts tinged with buffy yellow. 



Immature female, similar to adult, but back much more olive; under- 

 surface much yellower; sides grayish. 



A male collected at El Real, Darien, on January 24, 1964, had the 

 iris dark brown; cutting edge of maxilla and mandible except tip, 

 neutral gray; rest of maxilla and tip of mandible dull black; tarsus and 

 toes dusky neutral gray; claws black. 



Measurements. — Males (6 from Darien), wing 44.2-51.0 (47.5), 

 tail 30.8-33.3 (31.8), culmen from base 9.5-11.7 (10.7), tarsus 13.0- 

 14.3 (13.9) mm. 



Females (6 from Darien), wing 44.5-48.8 (46.0), tail 28.4-35.3 

 (31.7), culmen from base 9.3-10.7 ( 10.1 ), tarsus 12.7-14.8 (13.8) mm. 



Resident. Fairly common in the lowlands in eastern Province of 

 Panama from the Bayano River Valley at Maje eastward, and in 

 Darien. It is also found in northern Colombia and northeastern Vene- 

 zuela. The race panamensis named by Griscom from Darien, with 

 a range extending into northwestern Colombia, is not separable in the 

 more extensive series now available (Wetmore, Wilson Bull., 1968, p. 

 326) . Another race is found in extreme western Venezuela. 



