Vol. XIX, pp. 101-112 July 30, 1906
PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
NOTES ON BIRDS FROM COSTA RICA AND CHIRIQUI,
WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW FORMS AND
NEW RECORDS FOR COSTA RK^A.
BY OUTRAM BANGS.
In the spring of 11)05 wliik- Mr. Rol)ert Ridgway was in Costa
Rica, Mr. C. F. Underwood oftVrt'd liini for sale his entire col-
lection of l>irds. Mr. Ridgway at once wrote to John E. Thayer,
Esq., and myself, setting forth the great advantage it would be
to American ornithologists to have this collection come to the
United States. Mr. Thayer at once l)onght the collection and
in due time it was packed and shipped to us. It consisted of—
;),o()5 skins, representing al)OUt Gil species and subspecies
mostly' from Costa Rica, thougli a few came from Guatemala.
The collection had l>een kept by Underwood as a sort of type
series from Avhich he might name specimens he secured, and
many of the skins had been identified by Salvin, the labels
bearing names and notes in his handwriting. Besides contain-
ing representatives of most of the rarer Costa Rican species the
collection is rich in young birds in nestling plumage, and where
the series of a species is large, specimens both in freshly moulted
plumage and in worn, abraded condition can be found. The
dates on the labels cover nearly a score of years, and the col-
lection is the result of Underwood's laying aside the better
things secured Ijy him during this period. Such a collection is
invaluable.
Mr. Thayer turned the whole lot over to me for identification,
and with help here and there from Ridgway, Nelson, Oberholser,
Richmond, and Riley, I have at last finished the work, which,
as usual, took a much longer time than I anticipated. At first
Mr. Thayer was undecided what to do with the collection, but,
noticing from time to time the great interest I took in it, finally,
24-Proc, Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XIX, 1906. (101)
102 —Bangs Birds from Costa Rica and Chiriqid.
with his accustomed generosity, told me to keep a series for my
own collection and to arrange the —duplicates for exchange
probably with the National Museum.
As was to be expected there proved to be several new forms
and several new records for Costa Rica in the Underwood collec-
lection, besides which the fine material from the neighboring
country gave me an— oppo—rtunity
for comparison of Chiriqui
birds collected by Brown that I never before had had, result-
ing in the discovery among them of one or two new forms.
The following nates and descriptions are the results of my
work on the Underwood collection, which also meant going over
again all of Brown's Chiriqui collections.
Botaurus lentiginosus (Mont.).
One 9 taken at Reventazon, November 5, 1 899,' appears to be the first
Costa Rican record for the species.
Ereunetes pusillus (Linn.).
One 9 from vicinity of San Jose, September 15, 1898, adds this species
to the Costa Rican ornis.
Heteropygia bairdi (Cones).
Baird's sandpiper must also be given a place in the Costa Rican ornis,
on the strength of one 9 taken by Underwood at Cerro de la Candelaria,
near Escazii in October, 1900.
Leptotila cassini vinaceiventris (Ridg.).
In the Underwood collection are two doves, both adult males, labeled
Leptotila cassini, one of them so identified by Salvin, one from Volcan Mi-
ravalles, September 11, 1895, the other from Juan Vinas, March 20, 1902.
The Miravalles specimen is tyi)ical vinaceiventris, exactlj^ matching Hon-
duras examples. The Juan Vinas ))ird is not quite typical, api)roaching
cassini in its grayer breast and slightly darker and more lustrous upper
parts. Compared, however, with a pretty extensive series it seems rather
nearer to vinaceiventris than to cassini.
Qeotrygon costaricensis Lawr.
In 1902* I recorded Geotrygon costaricensis from the Volcan de Chiriqui,
on the strength of four adults taken there by W. W. Brown, Jr.
I was somewhat surprised a little later to see my record discredited in
Biologia Centrali-Americana,t where my Chiriqui specimens are referred to
Gr. laivrencei Salvin, and this done without seeing my skins or even writing
*Proc. New. Eng. Zocil. Club. Vol. Ill, p. 24, Jan. ;w, I'JOl.
t Vol. 3, p. 266, 1897-1904.
Bangs—Birds from Costa Rica and Chiriqui. 103
to me to ask if I had made a mistake ! My identification was correct, and
the birds from the Volcan de Chiriqui are true G. coslaricensis, differing in
no wise from Costa Rican si)eciniens.
The Underwood collection contains a splendid series of— Geolrygon
which
includes all the species known from Costa Rica Geolrygon albivenier, G.
montana, G. verngunms, G. lawrencei, G. coslaricensis and G. cldriquensis. I
think it would be difficult to select more inapplicable names than vera-
guensis, coslaricensis and cJiiriquensIs, which tliree of these doves are doomed
to bear, misleading any one not familiar witli tlie birds to suppose tliey
were local forms, confined each to the country tlie name of which it bears.
Pyrrhura hoffmanni gaudens subsp. nov.
Type from Boquete, Chiriqui. c? ailult, No. 9117, coll. of E. A. and O.
Bangs Collected March 3, 1901, by W. W. Brown, Jr.
Characters.—Similar to true P. Iiolf'manni of Costa. Rica, except in having
the featliers of — —top of head especially tlie occiput more or less t—ippedwith red and with red shafts; underparts slightly darker green less
yellowish green.
MKASUREMENTS.
No.
104 —Bangs Birds from Costa Rica and Chiriqui.
The two subspecies of Pyrrhura ])offinunnl are easily recognized l)y tlie
Costa Rican true hojf'nuwni being without red tips and sliafts to the feathers
of nape and crown (one skin only out of a large number examined show-
ing any) and the Chiriqui form, gaudem, having always, when adult, such
red markings, often very conspicuously developed.
Eumomota superciliaris australis subsp. nov.
Type from Bebedero, Costa Rica, c? adult. No. 16,499, coll. of E. A. and
O. Bangs. Collected February 11, 1890, by C. F. Underwood.
Characters.—Similar to true E. superciliaris, but paler in color throughout,
blue color of wings and tail much paler, more greenish blue ; superciliaries
chiefly whitish or very pale blue cinnamon-rufous of middle of back and;
in charac-
belly paler, particularly so on belly and; wings quite different
ter, the primaries unw.h shorter in proi)nrtion to secondaries, so that the
secondaries reach nearly to the wing tip; black tips of tertials and second-
aries much shorter.
MEASUREMENTS.
No.
Bangs—Birds from Costa Rica and Chiriqui. 105
Chiirackrs.—Similar to true S. cijanura (Gould), but larger with shorter
hill
; head, back and breast darker green under tail coverts dull steel blue;
edged with rich —ferruginous the under tail coverts in true 8. cynmira are
edged with pale grayish.
Mfiisiu-finevts.—Type, old adult c?: Wing, 54 28; tail, ; culmen, 18.
Compared with *S'. so/jhi;c (Bourc. & Muls.), the conunon Costa Rican
species, the new bird is at once distinguished by its more glittering green
crown, rustj' instead of grayish edges to under tail coverts and wholly
ditferent wing with conspicuous chestmit patches in it, and lined with
chestnut.
The type locality of .S'(mr"('n>//«( c//'(Httra (Gould) is Realejo, Nicaragua,
near the Pacific coast in the northwestern part of the republic. I have
seen no specimens from this immediate region, but have compared the one
Costa Rican skin with three from tlie boundary Hne between Honduras
and Nicaragua, 180 miles fi-om Pacific coast, and one from Guatemala.
Gould's figure and description of the type agree minutely with these four
skins, and not at all with the type of my new form from Costa Rica.
Ai)i)arent]y .V. cijiiuuvd liii/Kitli'iiK is an extremely rare bird, the type
being the only individual Underwood ever saw ; but it must be borne in
mind tliat theornis of much of Costa Rica remains still unknown. Many
tro|)ical American birds are exceedingly local, though perhaps common in
certain spots, and this hummer may yet be found in numbers somewhere.
Oreopyra.
Salvin in Cat. of Birds in British Museum and Hartert in Trochilidae,
both allow four forms to the genus of humming-birds, Oreopyra, confined
to Costa Rica, Chiri(pii and Veragua. Salvin gives these all si)ec;ific rank
while Hartert allows two species and two subspecies.
With the specimens in the Underwood collection and those taken by
W. \V. Brown, Jr., on the Volcan de Chiriqui combined, I have before me
a series of u|)wards of 200 skins, representing three of the four recognized
forms. A critical study of this large amount of material has induced me
to alter somewhat the arrangement of the— species
and subspecies as adopted
l)y Hartert, which was as follows
la. Oreopyra leucaspis leucaspis Gould. Chiriqui.
lb. 0. leucaspis cinereicauda Lawr. Costa Rica.
2a. 0. caloLrina caLoLrma Sal v. Costa Rica and western Panama.
26. 0. calohona pedoralis Sal v. Costa Rica.
The females of all are practically alike (I can tell none of them). 0. leu-
caspi.'^ and 0. calolxinneire distinguished by the male of the former having
a white and the male of the latter a violet throat. O. cinereicauda, how-
ever, is quite distinct in that the male has a gray tail (the others having it
steel —blue) and a much— bluer,
less greenish crown. 0. pecturalis a form I
have not seen I should judge to have been based on abnormal specimens
106 —Bangs Birds from Costa Rica and Chiriq ai .
of O. calolxina C(d<il;nnn faded or discolored by some change in the feath-
ers, as it is said to dilfer only in its breast l)eing darker, and when viewed
from in front nearly black. Especially as Hartert says it occurs with true
0. calohema in several parts of Costa Rica. At all events, Underwood did
not have a specimen in his collection, and it is with the other three forms
that I have to deal.
The first point to be decided is whether or not the white throat of leu-
canjyis as against the violet throat of (alohcimi is a specific or subspecific
character, or even a character at all, and I must confers that even the large
amount of material I have examined does not satisfy me on tliis point.
The series taken on the Volcan de Chiriqui by Brown contained but one
individual with a violet throat all the others have the throat
; mostly white ;
close inspection, however, shows that there are some violet-tipped featliers
at the edge of the white i)atch in nearly every one of these white-throated
birds. Among the Costa Rican skinsof O. ca/o/.-em« I find none but violet-
throated birds. These are mostly from Irazu and Cerro de la Candelaria.
0. civereicaurhi, that occurs chiefly (if not exclusively) in the Dola Moun-
tains in central Costa Rica, between the Volcan de Chiriqui and Iiazu and
the Cerro de la Candelaria, has the throat usually mixed violet and white ;
out of (53 males, 33 have the throat violet and white mixed, in some nearly
half and half, and 30 have plain while throats. Otherwise clnerek'uudd is
not in the least intermediate between odalanna and Icucaajjin, but differs
widely from both in its gray tail and bluer crown.
Examining the feathers of the throat carefully, we find them in tlie
white-throated specimens to be gray at base then pure white to ends, in
both leucaspis and civrreirnuda. In the one violet-throated bird from tlie
Volcan de Chiriqui, the feathers are gray at base, then white in middle
and merely tipped with violet. In calohema from Costa Rica the gray
bases of the feathers extend U})wards to the violet lips and there is no
white middle part to the feathers of the throat. I therefore think that the
violet-throated birds (either with the throat wholly or partially violet) from
Chiriqui are merely cases of extreme individual variation of 0. leucasjns.
White-throated examples with steel blue tails, i. e., 0. leucaKpis, are only
known from tlie Volcan de Chiriqui, and even here some examples have
the throat violet. As I have said before, however, all Costa Rican skins
have the throat violet.
I have seen no specimens from the Veraguan Ranges. Salvin, however,
records violet-throated birds from the western —ranges Cordillera del
Chucu, Cordillera de Tole, etc.—which he calls, together with the violet-
throated ones from Volcan de Chiriqui, 0. adolxma. I am unable to say
if these have white below the violet, or if they are like Costa Rican speci-
mens and have the gray of the bases of the feathers extended upward and
meeting the violet tips ; probably they are calolxma. In my opinion 0.
calola'ma. and 0. leucaxpis are exceedingly closely i-elated forms, differing
in exti-eme cases in one having a violet and the other a while throat, but
in many instances only to be told aiiart by one having white below the
violet tips of the feathers of the throat and liic oilier gray, and I should
treat them only as 8ubsi)ecies at the best.
—
Bangs Birds from Costa Rica and Chiriqui. 107
O. cincreicauda seems to ))e a perfectly distinct species. TrovMlus castan-
eoventris Gould is, furthermore, the name by which the bird of the Volcan
de Chiriqui, which I have called throughout this article, for the sake of
clearness, 0. leucaspis, must be known. It was based on a female bird from
the Cordillera of Chiriqui, and is the earliest name for any member of the
genus. I should therefore arrange the forms as follows:
Oreop!/ra aislaneoventris castancoveulrig (Gould.) Volcan de Chiriqui.
0. caslatieoventris calolxma (Salv.) Costa Rica ; Irazu, Cerro de la Candel-
aria, Dota Mts. (one skin in Underwood coll.), etc. South to western
ranges of Veragua.
(0. pc'Ctorulis Salv. A doubtfully valid form, occurring with (J. c. culolxma
in sevei'al parts of Costa Kica, the alleged differences probably being
due to fading or to some aberrant difference in structure of the
feathers.)
0. cincreicauda, Lawr. Central Costa Rica. Dota Mts.
Melanerpes wagleri Salv. & Godm.
In the Underwood collection is one young male of this species, taken at
Pozo Azul, July i), 1U03. This is I believe the first time the bird has been
recoided from Costa Rica, where tlie place of this Panaman form is taken
by MeUuierpes Jioffinanni.
Hypocnemis neevioides capnitis subsp. nov.
Tiipi: from Volcan Miravalles, Costa Rica, c? adult. No. 17,048, coll. of
E. A. and O. Bangs. Collected October 16, 1S95, by C. F. Underwood.
Characters.— ii\i\\\\i\.v to H. ^txvioides* (fi'om Panama) excei)t that the
adult c? has the whole sides and flanks slate color. (In true //. nxvioides
(Lafr.) the sides are whitish tinged with pale gray, and flanks pale grayish
brown).
The adult 9 of the new form has the sides and flanks darker, duller
brown, and the back deeper chestnut, tlian in true H. luxvioides.
MEASUREMENTS.
No.
108 Bangs—Birds from Costa Rica and Chiriqid.
Xenicopsis variegaticeps idoneus «nl)si). nov.
Tape from Boquete, Chiriqiii. Adult J*. No. 8943, coll. of E. A. and 0.
Bangs. Collected March 4, 1901, by W. W.— Brown,
Jr.
Characters. Similar in size and j)roportion.s to true Xenicojjsi.'i rariir/dliceps
Sol. of Costa Rica to southern Mexico (type locality, southern Mexico),
but strikingly different in the color of underparts, which in the new form
are dull yellowish olive, and in true X. nirlci/aliceps rich reddish l)n>wn.
Tlie back and rump in X. variei/'dicrpti idonen-s are paler and more oliva-
ceous, less reddish brown than in true A', variegaticeps.
From A', tempontlix ^8cl.) of Ecuador, the Chiriqui bird differs in having
the shaft spots on breast and belly nuich less well developed.
MKASIJIM-MKNTS.
No.
Bangs—Birds from Costa Rica and Chiriqui. 109
little known genus from Irazu, and wrote me that he thought it represented
a new form.
Later in the season—May, 1905—Mr. Ridgway visited Trazu himself and
liad the pleasure of seeing the sjiecies in life, liis companion, Don Anastasio
Alfaro, succeeding in taking one example, whicli has been kindly lent me.*
The species lived on Irazii in brushwood in ravines above timber-line.
There is no cane (bamboo) on Irazu. It was not uncommon, though very
hard to shoot.
The Irazii wren is quite distinct from the only other known member of
the genus, T. brnwni of the Volcan de Chiriqui, wholly lacking the strong
ruddy or chestnut coloring of tlie lower back, rump, tail coverts and flanks
of that species it is also; larger.
Cyanolyca blandita sp. nov.
Ti/pe from Volcan de Chiriqui, 9,000 feet altitude, cJ adult. No. 9324,
coll. of E. A. and O. Bangs. Collected June 2, 1901, by W. W. Brown, Jr.
Chararlcra.—Similar to Cyannh/ra iir/;n)ti(jnla (Lawr.) of Costa Rica and of
the same size, but throat
—
constantly pale blue—flax flower V)lue and
pale colored l)and across head narrower and blue throughout, darker on
sides of head, paler in middle. In C. nrgpntig^ilri the throat is silvery
white, sometimes shaded with lavender gray the band across head is;
much wider, nearly wliito in middle and pale blue at the sides.
Nestlings of tlie two forms are easily distinguished; even in this stage
of plumage C. nrgcntiguin having a silvery and C.hlandita a blue throat. The
band across the head is narrower and less definite than in the adults, but
it is bluish in C. hUinditd and whitish in C. argenllgula.
MKASUIiEMKNTS.
No.
110 —Bangs Birds from Costa Blca and Chiriqid.
other Pananian form proves to extend its range north to the Pacific slope
of Costa Rica. Apparently the more northern suhspeoies V. pulchellus
verticaUs Ridg. occupies eastern Costa Rica and extends southward even to
the Volcan de Chiriqni. I have one adult bird (the only one from the region
in my collection) from Boquete, Chiri(iui, tiiat is absolutely typical T'.
pulchellus verllcalis. The characters that separate these two forms appear
perfectly good, and we have in these vireos another instance of a Panaman
form extending into western and a Central American form into eastern
Costa Rica.
Stelgidopteryx.
In the Underwood collection is an extremely interesting series of nine
rough-winged swallows, no two of which are quite alike. One or two
breeding birds from Pozo Azul and Juan Vinas, C. R., and two others in
fresh plumage taken in March, are rather nearer serri.pennis than any of
the other subspecies, and might almost pass for that form except that all
show some fulvous on the throat and one or two have dusky spots, more
or less well developed, on some of the longer under tail coverts another;
skin, a breeding bird, taken at Pozo Azul, June 16, is exactly intermediate
between these and from Pozo Azul and Carrillo»ro/)_(/,7(«/*'.s; three others
I should call uro}>ygialis.
I must again emphatically express my belief that there is 6?(/ o??,f species
of SlAgidnplfri/.r. Since I first made this statement (Proc. New Eng. Zool.
Club. Vol. II, pp. 57-60, July 31, 1901), I have been accumulating what
specimens I could, and now have a much more extensive series, that to my
mind conclusively proves this. Selecting specimens of breeding birds from
a large amount of material I can lay out a line of skins that shows every
possible stage of intergradation between the various forms and every com-
bination of characters. There is no reason for considering any of the forms
more than subspecies, there is absolutely no break in the chain anywhere,
and no gap in the breeding range of the species.
The form Ridgway named S. mlvini was based on a series of intergrades
between serripennis and uropyguiUs, very unstable in chaiacter, and subject
to an immense amount of variation. This is the !)ird I cixWed fuhipenms,
a name which I still do not feel at all sure is not the proper one, if such
intergrades are to be recognized by name at all.
S. rldijivayi Nelson unquestional)ly intergrades with serripennis. I have
an adult male taken March (>, at Texolo, V. C, Mex., that is exactly inter-
mediate in every character. I occasionally, also, find well develoj^ed
dusky markings on under tail coverts in specimens taken within the United
States, one adult male taken April 4, at Barrington, Ga., having these
markings very consi)icuously developed.
I was pleased to see that Dr. Hellmayr, in a recent paper on the birds of
Trinidad, agrees with me and also recognizes the very pale form of the
northeastern portion of South America that I named S. riificollis xqnalis,
especially as other students of the American ornis have persisted in taking
the opposite view.
—
Bangs Bird^ from Costa Rica and Chiriqui. Ill
Chlorophanes spiza (Linn.).
The twenty-six skins of Chlorophanes .yilza in tlie Underwood collection
from Pozo Azul and San Jose are intermediate between subspecies guale-
7nalensls and exsul though rather nearer the latter. None of them have as
long bills as the northern form and none are quite so large, and although
none have quite the small size and short bill of exsul, several speci-
mens might well pass for that form.
Dacnis cayana callaina Bangs.
The Underwood collection contains nine skins of this form, three of them
fully adult males, all from Pozo Azul, thus extending the range of the
Cliiriqui form to western Costa Rica. Unfortunately there were no skins
from other places in Costa Rica, but I fancy ultratnnrina is the subspecies
that inliabits the eastern part of the country.
Icterus prosthemeles Strick.
There is in the southern part of the range of Icterus prosthemeles a ten-
dency toward a curious phase of plumage that apparently never occurs
among birds from Mexico or Guatemala. In a series of southern specimens
some can always be found that show much black mottling on flanks and
have the black of breast extended far backward over the belly, and in a few
specimens the black of the back also encroaches much on the yellow rump
patch. If all southern examples were alike, no ornithologist would hesi-
tate to I'ecognize a southern form by name, but they are not. In fact the
larger number of specimens from Panama to Honduras are quite like Mex-
ican examples. It may be that in time this tendency among southern
examples to show much more black than northern ones will become a
fixed character, but at present it certainly is not.
In the Underwood collection there were but two skins of this species, one
the blackest I have ever seen, the other exactly like ordinary Mexican
specimens.
Icterus sclateri Cassin.
In Birds of North and Middle America, part II, pp. 297-298, foot-note,
Ridgw—ay suggests
that perhaps two forms of this striking oriole may really
exist, Icterus sclateri sclateri Cassin, Nicai'agua to Costa Rica, and I. sclateri
formusus (Lawr.), Honduras to Oaxaca.
In the Underwood collection there is a fine pair from Miravalles, Costa
Rica. These and my one Mexican example. Nelson compared for me with
all the material in Washington, and found no appreciable difference in
size between northern and southern specimens. Southern skins have the
back more solidly black than northern, but the difference is— slight
and
perhaps partly due to season the southern specimens examined being in
freshly acquired autumnal plumage, and there seems no need for a sub-
division of the species.
112 Bangs—Birds front Costa Rica and Chlriqid.
Chlorospingus regionalis sp. nov.
Type from Cariblanco de Sarapiciui, Costa Rica, c? adult. No. 17,491,
coll. of E. A. and O. Bangs. Collected August 11,1899, by C. F. Under-
wood.
Characters.—Similar to ChlnyoxjinKjiLs iiov'iv'ms Bangs of Volcan de Chir-
iqui, but much duller in color, especially below, the rich greenish ochre
of jugulum and olive yellow of breast and sides and under tail coverts of
dtoeicivs being replaced in the new form by dull yellowish, —olive-green
slightly brighter and more yellowish on jugulum and darker and duller
on sides and under tail coverts back duller and browner olive and size a
;
little larger than in C. nuvicius.
MEASUKEMKNTS.
No.