598 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



The Sooty- faced Finch is found very locally in forest undergrowth 

 and borders in foothills and highlands, but is perhaps less uncommon 

 than it seems, since it is numerous at certain localities. In Panama it 

 has been recorded in Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro, Veraguas, Code, and 

 Darien. The form from western Panama is also found in Costa Rica; 

 the distinctive Darien race is known only from the type specimen. A 

 third race occurs in the west slope of the Western Andes of Colombia, 

 Ecuador, and southeastern Peru. 



My only encounter with this species was in Darien, where I caught 

 1 in a mist net set across a narrow stream in forest. In Costa Rica, 

 Slud (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 128, 1964, pp. 383-384) found 

 that the wet woodland bordering swift rivers or streams was its usual 

 habitat. Here it prefers thickly tangled ground cover in openings or 

 dense second growth dominated by tall trees. It moves in small bands 

 that break up during the nesting season, and forages on the ground, in 

 bushes, and low trees, where it takes berries. Its song is a variety of 

 high, thin, whistled notes, sometimes given in series of four or five; the 

 characteristic call is "a sharp, thin, whistled pu-peee, generally uttered 

 when hidden in dense undergrowth" (Ridgely, 1976, p. 338). 



LYSURUS CASTANEICEPS CRASSIROSTRIS (CassinJ 



Buarremon crassirostris Cassin, 1865, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, p. 170. 

 (Barranca, Costa Rica.) 



Characters. — Similar to L. c. eurous, but yellow of undersurface 

 more extensive and brighter; gray of head and throat darker; crown 

 lighter, more reddish; bill slightly smaller. 



A male collected at Boquete, Chiriqui, on April 6, 1903, had the iris 

 chocolate; bill lead color, whitish below; feet black. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Panama and Costa Rica), wing 

 76.0-82.0 (78.0), tail 52.3-68.9 (63.2), culmen from base 15.4-17.8 

 (16.5), tarsus 26.4-29.0 (27.9) mm. 



Females (10 from Panama and Costa Rica), wing 73.0-77.0 (74.8), 

 tail 56.5-63.4 (60.6), culmen from base 15.4-17.1 (16.4), tarsus 26.8- 

 28.8 (27.8) mm. 



Resident. Local, but probably not uncommon in the more humid 

 foothills and highlands of Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro, Veraguas, and 

 Code, where Heyde and Lux collected 1 at Cascajal on February 5, 

 1889 (USNM no. 150868). In Chiriqui, it has been collected between 

 1200 and 2340 m on the Volcan de Chiriqui and at Boquete by W. W. 

 Brown, Jr., (Bangs, Proc. New England Zool. Club, vol. 3, 1902, p. 



