FAMILY FRINGILLI DAE 



549 



around lower eyelid black; forecrown and fine superciliary grayish 

 blue, fading to dark blue of rest of upper surface; wing coverts, 

 remiges, and rectrices black, edged dark blue; undersurface dark blue, 

 becoming more blackish on abdomen and undertail coverts; underwing 

 coverts black. 



Adult female, entire upper surface, including wing coverts, reddish 

 brown; remiges and rectrices blackish brown, edged reddish brown; 

 undersurface between tawny brown, darkest on breast, sides and Hanks; 

 underwing coverts tawny. 



Immature male, like female. 



The Blue-black Grosbeak is a common inhabitant of undergrowth in 

 dense forest and second growth in the more humid lowlands of both 

 slopes. Near El Volcan, Chiriqui, it has been found as high as 1230 m 

 (Worth, Auk, 1939, p. 309). Two races are found in Panama, toddi 

 of Chiriqui and Veraguas, the Almirante Bay region of Bocas del Toro, 

 north to Nicaragua, and nominate cyanoides from Code east through 

 Panama to western Ecuador and northwestern Venezuela. Other races 

 range north to southeastern Mexico and south to Bolivia, Brazil, and 

 the Guianas. 



I have found this grosbeak common but difficult to see in forest. In 

 the dim light, it usually appears black, even when occasionally it rises 

 from the thick undergrowth to sing from a perch high above in a tree. 

 The song is distinctive, "a series of loud, clear, deliberate whistles do- 

 do, deh, dee, do, often followed by a soft, irregular twitter" (Eisen- 

 mann, Smiths. Misc. Coll., vol. 117, no. 5, 1952, p. 57). The female 

 seems to sing almost as well as the male. This species sings through 

 much of the year. Both sexes also give a sharp, scolding kee-eey. 

 Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif., no. 31, 1954, pp. 51-52) found that these 

 birds are partial to the seeds of maize. I took 1 whose stomach held 

 ground-up drupes. The stomachs examined by E. A. Goldman con- 

 tained in addition to a variety of seeds, remains of ants, snout-beetles, 

 arachnids, and caterpillars. Two collected by Strauch (Bull. Brit. Orn. 

 Club, 1977, p. 65) weighed 31.1 and 31.4 g. 



PASSERINA CYANOIDES TODDI Paynter 



Passerina cyanoides toddi Paynter, 1970, Check-list of Birds of the World, v. 13, 

 p. 239; new name for Cyanocompsa cyanoides caerulescens Todd, 1923, Auk, 

 40, p. 61. [Preoccupied in Passerina by Tanagra caerulescens Wied, 1830] . 

 (Esparta, Costa Rica.) 



Characters. — Male, darker all over than nominate cyanoides; less 

 light blue on superciliary area; female, undersurface tinged more 

 russet. 



