628 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



of abdomen white; underwing coverts white, with dusky streak on 

 wing edge. 



Measurements. — Males (2 from Colon and Colombia, including the 

 type), wing 99.5-101.0 (100.3), tail 32.4-34.2 (33.3), culmen from base 

 22.4-24.1 (23.3) tarsus 32.0-33.3 (32.7) mm. 



I know of no females in collections. 



Resident. Known in Panama from a single specimen, a male col- 

 lected by Henry van Horn in a small marshy area on Achiote Road, 

 just beyond the Canal Zone border in western Colon, on November 8, 

 1965. In addition to the holotype of ripleyi, I have examined another 

 male collected at Acandi, extreme northern Choco, Colombia, taken in 

 low second growth near the Rio Acandi on January 2, 1950, by M. A. 

 Carriker, Jr. The nominate subspecies, described originally from the 

 Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, is now known to range in small num- 

 bers through Colombia, from west of the Eastern Andes south into 

 northwestern Ecuador. Neocrex colombianus has often been con- 

 sidered a geographic race of Neocrex erythrops (Sclater). These two 

 species are closely similar in the pattern on the flanks and undertail 

 coverts, which in erythrops is slate gray barred with white, but colom- 

 bianus has the bill more slender, with the external slit of the external 

 nares narrowed by the greater width of the membrane on the upper 

 margin of the opening, whereas in erythrops the nostril is widely open 

 and easily seen to be pervious. The bill in colombianus is not bright red 

 at the base as in erythrops, the vent is plain light buff, not barred, and 

 the underwing is plain whitish, not barred as in erythrops. These dif- 

 ferences, plus the overlapping ranges, are such that it seems reasonable 

 to treat erythrops and colombianus as distinct species, each with 2 races. 



NEOCREX ERYTHROPS OLIVASCENS Chubb: Paint-billed Crake, 



Polla Pico Rojo 



Neocrex erythrops olivascens Chubb, 1917, Bull. Brit. Orn. CI., 38, p. 33. (Vene- 

 zuela.) 



Medium-sized; upper surface grayish brown, undersurface slate 

 gray; underwing coverts, lower flanks, and undertail coverts barred 

 gray and white. 



Description. — Length 183-193 mm. Adult (sexes alike), crown and 

 rest of upper surface, including wings and tail, grayish brown; throat 

 white; sides of head and undersurface slate gray; underwing coverts, 

 lower flanks, and undertail coverts barred gray and white. 



An unsexed bird collected at Changuinola, Bocas del Toro, on No- 

 vember 10, 1981, had the iris chestnut brown, bill bright orange-red on 



