BOAT-TAILED GRACKLE 341 



secure foundation for their nests. Five or six sanates frequently 

 nested at one time in the same coconut palm. 



As the sanates built, frequent quarrels arose among them, usually 

 between birds which desired the same nest-site, or between those 

 that had begun their nests too close together and were in each other's 

 way as they worked. They menaced each other with open bills and 

 high-pitched, irritated cries until at length one flew at the other, and 

 the two sparred face to face as they fluttered toward the ground. 

 Then they would separate and fly off to forage or to gather more ma- 

 terial for their nests. These quarrels never resulted in injuries to the 

 contestants, but caused the birds to scatter their nests in different 

 parts of the tree rather than crowd them all in the same place. 



Like oropendolas, the sanates often attempted to steal nest material. 

 Often one bird would grasp the end of a long fiber that dangled from 

 a neighbor's bill. Perching side by side on a coconut frond, the two 

 tugged at the coveted prize, until at last one or the other tore it from 

 her opponent's grasp and flew to her nest with it. Sometimes one or 

 even two birds would pursue a third who had found a particularly 

 desirable piece of material. The sanate who had her fibres rudely 

 torn from her bill never manifested resentment, but soon went cheer- 

 fully off to search for more. The clarineros took no part in building 

 the nests and viewed with indifference the quarrels between the females 

 from whatever cause they might arise. 



The completed nests were large and bulky open cups composed of a 

 variety of ingredients. The foundation was sometimes prepared by 

 piling in the chosen site a quantity of coarse materials such as weed 

 stalks, small grasses torn up by their roots, and miscellaneous vegetable 

 material. Above this the bird wove a roomy cup of coarsely fibrous 

 stuffs picked up from the ground, chief among which were uncleaned 

 strips from the decaying outer leaf sheaths of the banana plants; but 

 grass stems, bits of rag and string, and fibrous weed stalks made 

 flexible by partial decay, were also employed. The nests built in 

 bushes and dicotyledonous trees were suspended among the finer 

 twigs by fibers twisted firmly around them and woven back into the 

 walls of the cup. In the coconut palms, the nests between the 

 youngest leaves were attached by fibers woven around the leaflets. 

 Those lower in the crown of the palm were attached to the branches 

 of an inflorescence if they happened to touch it; but most of these 

 nests merely rested upon the broad bases of the leaf stalks, for usually 

 the builders found nothing suitable to which they might bind them. 

 The completed cup was plastered on the interior, to within an inch 

 or so of the rim, with a substantial thickness of fresh cow dung or mud, 

 and this in turn was lined with finely fibrous material. Those sanates 

 which worked hardest finished their nests in 5 days, but others less 



