FAMILY FRINGILLIDAE 



613 



M. E. Davidson collected a female at Chame on January 8, 1932, and 

 Gerald Rogers observed a bird there at 480 m on April 22, 1942, on 

 "an isolated rocky, sedge-covered hilltop which projected above the 

 coastal plain" (Rogers, Auk, 1945, p. 641). On March 26, 1955, I 

 searched for it in vain on the high slopes. 



The Rufous-collared Sparrow is of northern origin, as Chapman 

 (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 77, pp. 381-438) pointed out, but it has 

 spread over the highlands of Central America from southern Mexico 

 to Panama and in South America all the way to Tierra del Fuego, 

 from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and on the Caribbean islands of His- 

 paniola, Aruba, and Curasao. Paynter (Check-list Birds World, vol. 

 13, 1970, pp. 55-59) recognizes 25 races. Despite this striking poly- 

 morphism, the populations from Costa Rica, Panama, the three Andean 

 ranges of Colombia, and parts of northern Ecuador and western Vene- 

 zuela cannot be subdivided and constitute a single race, costaricensis. 

 Although the birds from Cerro Campana, Province of Panama, were 

 at one time considered to constitute a separate race, or ester a (Wet- 

 more, 1951, Smiths. Misc. Coll. 117(2), pp. 1-11), these individuals 

 cannot be consistently separated from specimens of costaricensis in 

 comparable plumage (Olson, 1981, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 94(2), pp. 

 371-372) . The original assessment of the Campana birds was probably 

 influenced by the fact that the specimens in the type series were taken 

 practically simultaneously and thus present a more uniform appearance 

 than a more randomly selected series with specimens in different states 

 of molt and wear. 



This is a very common species around agricultural fields, shrubby 

 hillsides, and houses in the highlands, where it is often quite tame. The 

 birds are usually found in pairs, although sometimes they are so abun- 

 dant that they seem to form flocks; however, if flushed they scatter in 

 different directions. At Cerro Campana in 1951, I put cracked rice at 

 the edge of the porch of the house where I was staying and the pair that 

 ranged there came immediately to eat, remaining until heavy dusk and 

 then suddenly taking flight into the grass below. There they walked 

 and crept, pushing their way through thin stands of grass rather than 

 hopping over. 



In Panama the song of the Rufous-collared Sparrow is a two-note 

 whistle, tseeip tsee being one of my notations for it. It suggests the 

 song of the Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna) and the tone of 

 the White-throated Sparrow (Z. albicollis). The birds also give a 

 series of tsip notes. Skutch (Publ. Nutt. Orn. Club, no. 7, 1967, pp. 



