FAMILY FRINGILLIDAE 



563 



SPOROPHILA SCHISTACEA SCHISTACEA (Lawrence): Slate- 

 colored Seedeater, Arrocero Apizarrado 



Spermophila schistacea Lawrence, 1862, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. N.Y., 7, p. 474. 



(Lion Hill, Panama.) 

 Sporophila crissalis Carriker, 1908, Ann. Carnegie Mus., 4, p. 301. (Buenos Aires 



de Terraba, Costa Rica.) 



Small; male, upper surface and most of undersurface slate gray; 

 throat and belly white; female dull olive, except for whitish throat and 

 belly. 



Description. — Length 106-111 mm. Adult male, entire upper sur- 

 face slate gray; wings and tail blackish gray, with inner lesser and mid- 

 dle coverts tipped white, and white patch at base of inner primaries; 

 sides of chin and throat and center of belly white; rest of undersurface 

 slate gray; underwing coverts gray and white. 



Adult female, entire upper surface dull olive; wings and tail dusky, 

 with feathers edged dull olive; throat whitish, breast, sides, and flanks 

 dull olive; center of belly and undertail coverts yellowish white; under- 

 wing coverts white. 



A male taken at Pucro, Darien, on January 30, 1964, had the iris 

 dark brown; basal two-thirds of culmen fuscous; rest of bill light 

 orange-yellow; tarsus and toes brownish neutral gray; hind claw light 

 brownish white, other claws fuscous. An immature male taken there 

 February 9, 1964, had the iris wood brown; a narrow line of dull honey 

 yellow on the left hand side of bill from nostril to a little behind bill 

 tip; gonys dull pale brown; rest of bill fuscous; tarsus and toes grayish 

 fuscous, claws fuscous brown. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Panama), wing 57.2-64.5 (61.8), 

 tail 39.0-44.6 (42.1), culmen from base 10.6-11.8 (11.2), tarsus 13.3- 

 14.5 (13.8) mm. 



Females (2 from Panama and Colombia), wing 57.5-59.3 (58.4), 

 tail 39.6-41.5 (40.6), culmen from base 10.4-10.6 (10.5), tarsus 13.1- 

 13.5 (13.3) mm. 



Resident. Rare and localized in second-growth woodlands and for- 

 est borders in the more humid lowlands of both slopes. It ranges 

 locally into foothills, such as Cerro Azul and Cerro Santa Rita 

 (Ridgely, 1976, p. 332). It has been collected in the Canal Zone at 

 several locations, in Darien at Cana (Griscom, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 

 vol. 69, 1929, p. 183) and at Pucro, at Puerto Obaldia, San Bias (Gris- 

 com, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 72, 1932, p. 371), in Chiriqui at 

 Bugaba (Hellmayr, Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Zool. Ser., vol. 13, pt. 11, 



