SCYTALOPUS ARGENTIFRONS Ridgway.
SILVERY-FRONTED SCYTALOPUS.
Adult male. — Forehead and superciliary region silvery gray (no. 6 or no. 7 gray[1]); rest of upper parts plain sooty black, the feathers of rump tipped, more or less distinctly, with dark rusty brown or chestnut; sides of head, anterior portion of forehead, chin, throat, and chest plain deep slate color or blackish slate, the color usually darker around eye (especially between eye and the silvery gray of superciliary region); slate color of chest gradually changing to paler, or slate-gray, on breast, this into light silvery gray (sometimes tinged with fulvous) on abdomen; sides rather darker slate color than chest; flanks, anal region, and under tail-coverts sooty black, the feathers conspicuously tipped or terminally margined with deep rusty brown or russet; maxilla brownish black, mandible more brownish; legs and feet deep horn brownish (in dried skins); length (skins), 102-114 (107.5); wing, 51.5-54 (52.9); tail, 34.5-40 (35.8); culmen, 11-12 (11.6); tarsus, 20-21 (20.8); middle toe, 16.5-17.5 (17.1).[2]
Adult female. — Similar to the adult male but gray U-shaped frontal and superciliary mark obsolete or entirely wanting; feathers of all the upper parts broadly but indistinctly margined with dark brown; gray of under parts confined to chin, throat, and chest, the whole sides, flanks and under tail-coverts very broadly margined with russet, changing to buffy cinnamon on abdomen; bill, etc., as in adult male, but mandible lighter brownish; length (skins), 109-112 (110.5); wing, 50-52 (50.8); tail, 40-41.5 (40.7); culmen, 10.5-11.5 (11); tarsus, 19.5-21 (20.3); middle toe, 16.5-17.5 (17).[3]
High mountains of Costa Rica (Volcán de Irazú; Volcán de Poás; Coliblanco) and western Panamá (Boquete; Volcán de Chiriquí).
- Scytalopus argentifrons Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xiv, no. 869, Oct. 31, 1891, 475 (Volcán de Irazú, Costa Rica; coll. U. S. Nat. Mus.); xvi, 1893, 613 (additional specimens described). — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, ii, 1892, 246. — Bangs, Proc. New Engl. Zool. Club, iii, 1902, 48 (Boquete and Volcán de Chiriquí, Panamá, 5,000-7,000 ft.). — Carriker, Ann. Carnegie Mus., vi, 1910, 594 (Ujurras de Térraba, Volcán de Irazú, La Estrella de Cartago, and Volcán de Turrialba, Costa Rica; crit.; habits). — Ferry, Pub. 146, Field Mus. N. H., orn. ser., i, no. 6, 1910, 271 (Coliblanco, Costa Rica).
- [Scytalopus] argentifrons Sharpe, Hand-list, iii, 1901, 5.
