5 68 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



Orn. Club, 1977, p. 65) collected specimens weighing from 10.0 to 

 11.9 g. 



Olson (Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., vol. 94, 1981, pp. 380-390) has re- 

 vised the rather complex variation and nomenclature of this species in 

 Panama, and his conclusions are followed here. 



SPOROPHILA AMERICANA CORVINA (P.L. Sclater) 



Spermophila corvina P. L. Sclater, 1859, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 379. (Playa 



Vicente, Oaxaca, Mexico.) 

 Spermophila badiiventris Lawrence, 1865, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. N.Y., 8, p. 172. 



(Grey town, Nicaragua.) 



Characters. — Adult males almost entirely black, with only the spec- 

 ulum of the wing and midline of belly white. Speculum smaller than 

 in hicksii. Female and subadult males are markedly darker and more 

 sooty than in other subspecies. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Bocas del Toro, Code, Colon, and 

 the Canal Zone), wing 52.0-54.5 (53.6), tail 42.0-47.4 (45.0), oilmen 

 from base 9.7-11.0 ( 10.2) , tarsus 13.5-15.9 (14.9) mm. 



Females (10 from Bocas del Toro and Costa Rica), wing 50.0-55.0 

 (52.2), tail 39.8-46.2 (43.2), culmen from base 9.8-11.0 (10.3), tarsus 

 13.7-15.8 (14.9) mm. 



Resident. Common on the Caribbean slope from Bocas del Toro to 

 the Canal Zone. The few specimens collected from the Rio Calovevora, 

 Veraguas, to the Canal Zone, are slightly less pure, in a plumage having 

 some white on the sides of the neck. Beyond Panama, this subspecies 

 occurs north along the Caribbean slope to Veracruz, Mexico; it is ab- 

 sent from Yucatan. 



Two nests I collected at Almirante, Bocas del Toro, on March 12, 

 1962, were rather thin-walled cups of slender brown rootlets. One had 

 a few small leaves intertwined in the sides and base. The nests were 

 compact, strong, and firm, but with the interior visible from the sides 

 and below. Dimensions of one nest were 75x75 mm. on the outside, 

 with an inside depth of 45 mm. Huber (Proc. Acad Nat. Sci. Phila- 

 delphia, vol. 84, 1932, pp. 241-242) describes several nests and eggs of 

 this race taken in Nicaragua. Clutches were of one or two eggs. "The 

 eggs are grayish white spotted with fuscous and blackish brown. They 

 measure 17.7x13 and 17.6x13.1 mm. respectively." Skutch (Pacific 

 Coast Avif. no. 31, 1954, p. 31) noted that most nests he found con- 

 tained two eggs or nestlings, but a three-egg clutch is occasionally laid. 



