620 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



A male collected at El Volcan, Chiriqui, on March 17, 1965, had the 

 iris dark chestnut; tip of maxilla dusky neutral gray; rest of bill dull 

 greenish yellow, becoming more yellow at base; tarsus, toes, and claws 

 dull brown. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Panama), wing 57.0-61.0 (58.4), 

 tail 34.9-38.7 (36.6), culmen from base 9.7-10.8 (10.3), tarsus 11.2- 

 12.2 (11.7) mm. 



Females (10 from Panama), wing 55.0-58.5 (57.2), tail 33.4-40.3 

 (36.1), culmen from base 9.0-10.7 (9.9), tarsus 11.2-12.0 (11.5) mm. 



Resident. Locally common but erratic in the lowlands and foothills 

 of the Pacific slope from Chiriqui to the Canal Zone, but less common 

 in central Panama than in the west. On the Caribbean slope, it is 

 known only from occasional but increasing reports in the middle 

 Chagres River Valley in the Canal Zone; the maximum is 4 seen at 

 the Madden Lake Scout Camp on July 10, 1975 (Ridgely, in lltt. ) . East 

 of the Canal Zone there is one old sighting, at Rio Tapia, eastern Prov- 

 ince of Panama, in 1934 by R. S. Arbib (Ridgely, 1976, p. 341), but 

 many recent ones. Although this goldfinch is kept as a cage bird, E. A. 

 Goldman collected specimens at Gatun and Corozal in the Canal Zone 

 during 1911, suggesting that even at that time not all found here were 

 escaped from captivity. The species now occurs locally east to Cerro 

 Azul and the Tocumen-Pacora area in eastern Province of Panama 

 (Ridgely, in lift.). On January 26, 1976, Ridgely observed a pair 

 building a nest at Cerro Azul, and on March 11, 1979, he saw a pair 

 feeding 3 partially fledged young there. Beyond Panama, this race 

 ranges north to Chiapas, Mexico; other races are found north to south- 

 western Washington and east to Oklahoma, and south to Venezuela 

 and northwestern Peru. 



Although the race crocea is now usually merged with colombiana 

 Lafresnaye 1843, the series now available at the Smithsonian indicates 

 that the birds from Panama north to Mexico are in fact separable from 

 those of northern South America. Although the amount of white in 

 the tail of colombiana does vary, it is hardly, if ever, as extensive, 

 particularly distally, as in crocea, in which the large white patch seems 

 invariably present in fully adult males. Furthermore, although poorly 

 represented in most collections, females from Panama are much 

 brighter yellow below and lack the decided olive suffusion found on 

 the chest of colombiana. 



In Panama, this species inhabits open country with scattered trees 

 and bushes. Monniche (Blake, Fieldiana: Zool., vol. 36, no. 5, 1958, 

 pp. 571-572) collected it on Volcan de Chiriqui at 1590 m, and M. E. 



