FAMILY COERKBIDAE 



519 



in the fairly humid lowlands of both slopes. ]t ranges into hill country 

 on Cerro Campana and Cerro Azul in the Province of Panama and on 

 Cerro Quia, Darien, but there seem to be no Panama records above 

 1000 m or from the eastern Azuero Peninsula (Eisenmann in Htt.). 

 The birds of Chiriqui and Veraguas are of the race callaina, also found 

 on the Pacific side of Costa Rica; those found in Panama on the Carib- 

 bean slope and on the Pacific slope from Code eastward are of the race 

 ultramarina, which occurs from eastern Nicaragua and extreme south- 

 eastern Honduras (Ridgely in Htt.) and eastern Costa Rica to north- 

 western Colombia. Other races are found south to Bolivia, northeastern 

 Argentina, and southern Brazil. 



The Blue Dacnis forages for insects amid the foliage very much like 

 a warbler. It eats berries and the pulpy arils that encase certain tree 

 seeds and also probes inside flowers, either for nectar or the insects to 

 be found there. It is often found in mixed honeycreeper flocks (Moyni- 

 han, Smiths. Misc. Coll., vol. 143, no. 7, 1962, p. 60). Once at La 

 Campana, Province of Panama, I saw 1 in the upper branches of a tall 

 leafless tree, where it stood over some excrescence 12 or 14 cm long, 

 apparently the housing of some insect; the bird was pecking strongly 

 at this as a nuthatch might, rising to full height and delivering heavy 

 and repeated blows. 



This dacnis is quite unvocal. Skutch, who has had them come to his 

 feeding tray in Costa Rica, has heard only an occasional "slight, weak 

 monosyllable" and a few lisping and high notes (Condor, 1962, p. 99) . 

 Eisenmann mentions a tseet note. 



Eisenmann (in Htt.) saw in the Canal Zone a male perched quietly 

 for 10 minutes on a bare twig at the top of a tall tree, and, on another 

 occasion (March 7, 1974) a male so perched on a leafless tree moving 

 its head from side to side with the bill open — a display he never ob- 

 served before or since. 



DACNIS CAYANA CALLAINA Bangs 



Dacnis cayana callaina Bangs, 1905, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 18, p. 154- 

 (Divala, Chiriqui, Panama.) 



Characters. — Males, bright cerulean or turquoise; female, throat 

 tinged blue. 



A male collected at Puerto Armuelles, Chiriqui, on March 9, 1966, 

 had the iris rather dark red; base of mandible dull brown; rest of bill 

 black; tarsus brown; toes dusky brown, claws dull black. A female 

 collected there the same day had the tip of bill black; base of maxilla 



