Viewing page 18 of 142

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[circled]] ^[[1]] [[/circled]]

DISPLAY PATTERNS OF TROPICAL AMERICAN "NINE-PRIMARIED” SONGBIRDS

V. [[underlined]] Saltator [[/underlined]]

M. Moynihan

     This is the fifth in a series of papers on the ritualized, social signal, behavior patterns of some tropical American finches, tanagers, and honeycreepers.  The preceding papers of the series were concerned with the genera [[underlined]] Chlorospingus, Ramphocelus, and Arremonopa [[/underline]] (Moynihan, 1962b, 1962c, 1963, and 1965).  The following account will include brief descriptions of some patterns of five species of [[underline]] Saltator, [[/underline]] large “grosbeak” type finches.  These species were not studied in detail, but enough of their behavior was seen to permit a partial evaluation of the comparative position of the genus.

THE STREAKED SALTATOR [[underlined]](S. albicollis) [[/underline]]

     Wild individuals of this species were observed in the Canal Zone and adjacent parts of the Republic of Panama at irregular intervals between March, 1958, and April, 1962.  In addition, a few individuals were trapped in some of the same areas, and kept and studied in large aviaries on Barre Colorado  Island.  According to Hellmayr (1938), all these birds should have been representatives of the subspecies [[underline]] isthmicus.  [[/underline]]

     Like all the other species of the genus with which I am familiar, Streaked Saltators seem to prefer “edge” habitats, especially the edges of second-growth vegetation, scrub and small trees.  They seldom go very far inside dense scrub, and [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] usually range from three to twenty-five feet above the ground, seldom or never coming down to the ground itself.  Some aspects of their general social behavior in Panama are described in Moynihan (1962a).  They are not very gregarious.  They [[strikehthrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]]^[[handwritten]] MAY OCCUR SINGLY OR IN