8 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



are attached to the end of a limb of one of the taller trees, and some- 

 times overhang a public road." See plate 1. 



Eggs. — The two sets of eggs in the Thayer collection consist of 

 six and four, respectively. One egg is rather long-ovate, and the 

 others are all typically ovate; they are only slightly glossy. In 

 the set of six, the ground color varies from dull white to creamy 

 white; they are thickly marked about the larger end with flecks, 

 spots, and small blotches of dull browns, "wood brown," "buffy 

 brown," or "olive-brown" and are sparingly dotted elsewhere with 

 the same colors and with a few spots of pale gray. In the set 

 of four, the ground color varies from "pale pinkish cinnamon" 

 to "tilleul buff"; and the eggs are somewhat irregularly and more 

 or less generally scrawled with long marks and dotted with minute 

 specks of the same shades of brown. This is a rather heavily 

 marked set of pretty eggs. 



Mr. van Rossem (Dickey and van Rossem, 1938) says of the eggs of 

 the closely related Sumichrast's becard : 



Two sets of eggs were taken by the simple expedient of shooting off the 

 slender branches to which the nests were attached and catching the nests 

 as they fell. One of these, taljeu at Lake Guija on May 23, 1927, held five 

 eggs, two of which were broken in the thirty-foot drop. The remaining 

 three measure 23.9X17.5; 23.3x16.9; and 22.4X7.[?] In ground color 

 the larger two are between "vinaceous bufC" and "avellaneous" with shell 

 markings of "bone brown," "natal brown" and "army brown," thinly scattered 

 as small streaks and irregular spots over the whole surface, but coalesced 

 into a wreath of heavy blotches about the larger end. The third egg of this 

 set is very different, having a ground color of very light "pale olive gray" 

 with scattered spots and small irregular markings of "mouse gray," "quaker 

 drab," and various shades of pale brown. The max'kings are more numerous, 

 but do not form a wreath, about the larger end. It may have been laid by 

 a bird other than the parent of the larger two. The second nest, taken at 

 Lake Guija, on May 24, 1927, contained a single egg nearly ready to hatch. 

 It is very different from any of the three eggs in the first set both in size 

 and color. It measures 25.0X16.3. In color it is immaculate "pale ochra- 

 ceous salmon" witli a solid cap of minute, coffee-colored spots at the larger end. 



The measurements of 22 eggs of the species average 23.2 by 16.9 

 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 26.0 by 

 17.9, 24.0 by 18.1, 20.3 by 15.5, and 21.0 by 14.9 millimeters. 



Yowng. — Mr. Skutch learned by close observation that the male 

 takes no part in the incubation of the eggs; he never saw him enter 

 the nest during the course of incubation. But he does his share 

 in the care and feeding of the young. Of this he writes (MS.) : 

 "There came a day when the becards no longer brought leaves and 

 lengths of vine to the nest, but appeared to approach it with empty 

 bills. By looking carefully through the binoculars, I could now 

 and then discover a portion of some small insect projecting from 



