532 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA — PART 4 



then swallow in small pieces. The blossoms are an inch across and the 

 birds take a minute or two to consume one. In addition to the vegetable 

 pulp, they must also eat the many thrips found in the blossoms. 



Stone (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 70, 1918, p. 276) 

 provides the only details I have on the breeding of this bird in Pan- 

 ama. Based on Lindsey L. Jewel's data from the Canal Zone, he men- 

 tions a "nest (April 30) three feet up in a shrub grown over with vines, 

 a rather small open cup. Eggs two, bluish green wreathed with black 

 at the larger end, 1.13 X .76 and 1.12 X .79 ins. Another nest in the same 

 sort of situation (March 24, 1912), made of weed stalks and tendrils, 

 contained two fresh eggs, 1.07X.76 and 1.06X.75 ins." 



SALTATOR MAXIMUS (Miiller): Buff-throated Saltator, 

 Saltador Gargantianteado 



Figure 42 



Tanagra maxima P. L. S. Miiller, 1776, Natursyst., suppl, p. 159. (Cayenne.) 



Large, upper surface yellowish green, with varying amounts of gray 

 on crown and nape; center of throat cinnamon-buff, surrounded with 

 varying amounts of black; rest of undersurface gray. 



Description. — Length 187-203 mm. Adult (sexes alike), lores and 

 superciliary white; crown, nape, and side of head gray, crown with 

 varying amounts of yellowish green; rest of upper surface, including 

 wings and tail, yellowish green; center of forechin white, sides black; 

 upper throat cinnamon-buff; rest of undersurface gray, tinged cin- 

 namon-buff , usually white or light cinnamon-buff in center; underwing 

 coverts cinnamon-buff. 



Juvenile, crown and back yellowish green; white superciliary very 

 obscure; cinnamon-buff lacking on throat, replaced by whitish; rest of 

 throat and breast blackish, becoming yellowish gray, spotted blackish 

 on belly. 



The Buff -throated Saltator is common in the lowlands of both slopes 

 of Panama in shrubby clearings and woodlands. It is also found less 

 commonly in foothills and in the Chiriqui highlands up to 1800 m. 

 Three very distinct races are found in Panama, S. m. magnoides of the 

 Almirante Bay region of Bocas del Toro, intermedins of Chiriqui, 

 Veraguas (including Islas Gobernadora and Cebaco), Los Santos, and 

 Herrera, and iungens of San Bias and Darien. Both magnoides and 

 intermedins are characterized by a complete black collar across the 

 breast delimiting the buffy throat patch. This is absent in iungens, in 

 which the black is restricted to the sides of the buffy patch. In the large 



