FAMILY FRINGILLIDAE 



575 



SPOROPHILA ANGOLENSIS (Linnaeus): Lesser Seed-finch, 

 Arrocero Prieto 



Loxia angolensis Linnaeus, 1766, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, 1, p. 303. ("Angola," error, 

 eastern Brazil suggested by Hellmayr, 1906, Novit. Zool., 13, p. 19.) 



Small; bill very thick; male, entirely black with small patch of white 

 at base of primaries and secondaries and white underwing coverts; fe- 

 male entirely brown, slightly more reddish on undersurface. 



Description. — Length 107-115 mm. Adult male, entirely black, 

 slightly glossy, with white at base of all remiges except outermost pri- 

 mary, and white underwing coverts. 



Adult female, variable shades of brown; upper surface dark reddish 

 brown; wings and tail dark dusky brown, edged color of upper surface; 

 undersurface mostly color of upper surface or slightly lighter, espe- 

 cially on chin and center of belly; underwing coverts white. 



Immature male, like female, but darker and more richly colored. 



The species that have been placed in the genus Oryzoborus are simi- 

 lar in plumage and morphology to species of Sporophila, and several 

 hybrid combinations between the 2 genera are known. Thus, Olson 

 (Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., 1981, 94:43-51) concludes that "it is best to 

 emphasize the close relationship of these birds, and the fact that they 

 constitute a single radiation, by uniting Oryzoborus Cabanis 1851 with 

 Sporophila Cabanis 1844." 



Olson also showed that 2 groups previously regarded as separate 

 species, angolensis and funerea, are in fact a single species. The ango- 

 lensis subspecies group, in which the adult males have chestnut bellies, 

 is found in most of tropical South America east of the Andes and in 

 the upper Magdalena Valley of Colombia. The funerea subspecies 

 group, in which the males are essentially all black, extends from south- 

 ern Mexico through Middle America to western Colombia and Ecuador 

 and east to the central Magdalena Valley. Intergrades occur in several 

 places in the Magdalena Valley (Olson, Auk, 1981, pp. 379-381). 

 Within Panama, 2 races are found, distinguishable only in the female 

 and subadult male plumages. ,S\ a. salvini (Ridgway) occurs along the 

 Caribbean coast through Bocas del Toro at least to western Veraguas 

 and through Costa Rica to southern Nicaragua. 5. a. ochrogyne Olson 

 ranges from southwestern Costa Rica, Panama except the western 

 Caribbean coast, to western Colombia. Ridgely {in litt.) reports that 

 there seems to be a resident population in the elfin cloud forest on 

 Cerro Jefe, (950-1000 m), eastern Province of Panama. 



Two adult males and 2 females from Coiba Island differ from main- 



