554 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



of upper and undersur faces; lesser wing coverts blue; other wing co- 

 verts, remiges, and rectrices black, edged blue. 



Adult female, entire upper surface warm reddish brown; wing co- 

 verts and remiges dark brown, edged reddish brown; rectrices dark 

 brown, sometimes edged bluish; undersurface buffy, washed and 

 streaked with light brown across breast and on sides and flanks; under- 

 wing coverts white. 



Male in basic plumage, like female, but sometimes irregularly marked 

 with blue. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from the breeding range, taken in May) , 

 wing 64.0-67.8 (65.7), tail 48.5-54.4 (50.2), oilmen from base 10.5- 

 12.5 (11.4), tarsus 16.1-17.6 (16.6) mm. 



Females (10 from the breeding range, taken in May) , wing 61.2-65.8 

 (63.9), tail 44.3-49.2 (47.5), culmen from base 11.0-12.2 (11.6), tar- 

 sus 15.4-18.5 (16.9) mm. 



Migrant and winter visitor from the north. Uncommon or locally 

 common in Bocas del Toro and Chiriqui, progressively less so east- 

 ward; it is scarce in the Canal Zone and rare in eastern Panama. Most 

 of the population winters from central Mexico to Costa Rica, with only 

 a few going as far as Colombia and Venezuela. In the Chiriqui high- 

 lands, it has been recorded up to 1800 m (Ridgely, 1970, p. 331), and 

 it has also been collected on Saboga in the Pearl Islands (Thayer and 

 Bangs, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 46, 1905, p. 159). Eisenmann (in 

 litt.) reports a partly blue individual netted and released on January 

 26, 1973, from the Galindo camp on the Rio Bayano, eastern Province 

 of Panama. This species is found in Panama from early October to 

 mid-May (Loftin and Olson, Carib. Journ. Sci., vol. 4, no. 3, 1963, p. 

 195). 



While in Panama, the Indigo Bunting frequents open scrub, bushy 

 pastures, and thickets, where it sometimes moves about in small flocks. 

 Males acquire their alternate plumage by February or March. Leek 

 (Bird-Banding, 1975, p. 202) weighed several Indigo Buntings that 

 were mist-netted at Cerro Punta, Chiriqui; 15 caught in March 1968 

 had an average weight of 13.8 g and 8 caught the following month had 

 an average weight of 15.4 g. Burton's weights of 26 and 28 g (Bull. 

 Brit. Orn. Club, 1975, p. 86) must be due to a lapsus. 



PASSERINA CIRIS (Linnaeus): Painted Bunting, 

 Semillero Pintado 



Small; male, crown, nape, sides of throat and of breast bluish violet; 

 upper back and most wing coverts bright yellow-green; lower back and 



