Beaufortia SERIES OF MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS ZOOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF THE UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM

Notes on a collection of birds from Costa Rica preserved in the collections of the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam H. W.E. Croockewit Thirteen species of birds, including several endemics, from the Costa Rican highlands, and now preserved in the Zoologisch Museum, Amsterdam, are reported. Some specimens are topotypical. In addition to the usual symbols for males ( cf) and females (9)1 have made use of a third symbol (O) for specimens of which the sex remained unknown. This is a report on a very small collection of birds from Costa Rica made by the author in company of Dr. G. Kruseman, during a period when we were both staying in El Salvador. On the collections made in the last named country and in the adjacent Central American states will be reported later on. The collection made in Costa Rica consists of about 20 specimens, representing 13 species. Some field records by the author have been added to this paper. Considering the recent publications on the birds of this country (Skutch, 1954 & 1960; Slud, 1964) the collection hardly contributes new facts to the knowledge of this country. Still it contains some interesting endemic species as Junco vulcani, Chlorospingus zeledoni, and Vermivora gutturalis, rarely found in European collections. The collection was made during a short visit in October 1952 mainly to the Irazu and Cordillera de Talamanca area. The habitat at an altitude of 2000—3000 m in this area belongs to the cloudforest zone with groves of Quercus costaricensis Liebm., Quercus irazuensis Kuntze with undergrowth of Ericacea (Gaultheria species). In this zone and the adjoining pâramo-vegetation several species were observed and collected. Many of the collected specimens can be considered topotypical material. In the following list of the species collected I have basically followed Wetmore as far as the classification of families