338 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



well at a distance, that I strongly suspect that they themselves were 

 responsible for most of the depredations, especially since I once sur- 

 prised a clarinero standing over the nest of a tiny Bonaparte's euphonia 

 (Tanagra lauta lauta) which he had just torn to pieces in order to 

 remove the eggs. 



Courtship. — At "Alsacia" the sanates began to build their nests 

 during the last week of February, and at this time the noise and 

 excitement of the clarineros reached their highest pitch. The colony 

 contained about a hundred birds, and there were at least two or three 

 females for each male. The clarineros did not appear to have any 

 particular mates, but formed merely random and temporary unions 

 with the sanates. Yet although they shared the same territory and 

 were idle, they never seriously quarreled. Sometimes two would 

 stand side by side on the same perch, calling peacefully for several 

 minutes, when of a sudden one would rush at the other and drive him 

 away; but the bird thus threatened never turned to fight and the 

 other forgot his animosity in a moment, so there never resulted any 

 disagreeable encounters. The case was quite different with the 

 sanates, who often came to grips in their disputes over their nest sites. 



The clarineros were ardent in courtship. Often one flew down 

 beside a sanate which was feeding or gathering material for her nest 

 on the ground. He addressed her with wings half-raised and quiver- 

 ing, his great tail held level with his body and his head depressed, 

 his contour feathers all fluffed out, making him appear larger tban 

 he was, while with half-opened bill he uttered pleading calls. Some- 

 times his voice was shrill and insistent, sometimes soft and appealing 

 as the peeps of a little chick lost from its mother in the grass; but no 

 matter what language he used, the ardent suitor was sure to be ignored 

 by the busy sanate, who went resolutely about her work. At other 

 times he perched beside her in a tree and paid his court in much the 

 same manner. So long as the sanate ignored him, his passion would 

 die away almost as suddenly as it began. 



The nuptial flights of the grackles were aerial displays of the most 

 thrilling sort. They began when a sanate fled the attentions of a 

 clarinero who addressed her on the ground or on a coconut frond, or 

 when he tried to overtake her as she flew about her usual business, 

 whether to find food or to gather material for her nest. As she fled 

 from him he uttered his shrill nuptial calls and increased his speed 

 to overtake her. She doubled and twisted and dodged and used 

 every stratagem to escape him. Far out over the valley they went, 

 until they were high above the tallest ceiba trees. Closely as he 

 pressed her, she always managed to elude him; and I never saw one 

 of these breathless pursuits end in a capture. The wild chase over, 



