Page:Birds of North and Middle America partV Ridgway.djvu/169

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BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA.
141

toe, the inner toe reaching about to the joint; hallux about as long as inner toe, but much stouter; basal phalanx of middle too united to outer too for greater part of its length, to inner too for loss than half its length; claws moderate in size and curvature, that of the hallux shorter than the digit. Plumage full, with feathers broad and distinctly outlined, those of rump and flanks more elongated, blended, and lax; feathers of pileum rather stiff, slightly elongated; an elongated, narrow, naked postocular space.

Coloration. — Head black, with more or less of chestnut on lateral portion, the throat sometimes spotted with brown and whitish; above brown, the back streaked with black, wing-coverts with subapical spots of buff or light fulvous margined with black; under parts broadly barred or squamated with white and black.

Range. — Eastern Costa Kica to northwestern Ecuadór. (Two species.)

KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF PITTASOMA.

a. Pileum, including superciliary and supra-auricular regions, uniform black.

b. Smaller (wing 93-99.5 in adult male, 93.5-95.5 in adult female); auricular and suborbital regions wholly chestnut. (Panamá.)

Pittasoma michleri michleri (p. 141).

bb. Larger (wing 99.5-115 in adult male, 97.5-100.5 in adult female); auriculars and suborbital regions black, or mostly so. (Costa Rica.)

Pittasoma michleri zeledoni (p. 142).

aa. Pileum rufous, bordered laterally by a black superciliary stripe. (Northwestern Ecuadór.)

Pittasoma rufopileatum (extralimital).[1]

PITTASOMA MICHLERI MICHLERI Cassin.

MICHLER'S ANTPITTA.

Adult male. — Pileum, including upper half of lores and whole of superciliary region, uniform black (slightly glossy); back, scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts olive-brown to vandyke brown, the first broadly but not sharply streaked with black (the feathers sometimes also narrowly squamately margined with the same), and with narrow buffy shaft-streaks; tail deep chestnut-brown; wings deep chestnut- brown, the middle and greater coverts with a small subterminal transverse spot of whitish or buffy, inclosed between a small black spot and a narrow terminal bar;[2] tertials with a more or less distinct apical spot of buff or tawny; outer webs of primaries lighter chestnut- brown than the general color; lower half of lores dull white, usually somewhat flecked with dusky; auricular and malar regions uniform

deep chestnut, the latter, however, partly mixed with black, especially


  1. Pittasoma rufopileatum Hartert, Novit. Zool., viii, no. 3, Oct. 5, 1901, 370 (Salidero, Bulún, n. w. Ecuadór; coll. Tring Mus.); ix, 1902, 615, pl. 8.
    This species I have not seen.
  2. Sometimes a few of the lesser coverts have similar but smaller markings.