LICHTENSTEIN'S KINGBIRD 55 



trroiind in the foliage of a horizontal branch of a small mimosa 

 tree. It was so thin and so poorly constructed that the three eggs 

 could easily be seen from below. The body was of small twigs, and 

 the nest cup was lined with fine round grasses. Another in an 

 almost exactly similar situation, found at Lake Guija May 28, 1927, 

 was somewhat better built, for its contents could not be seen from 

 below. Like many other native species this one often takes advantage 

 of wasps' nests by placing its own home close by." 



Eggn. — There is a set of four eggs in the Thayer collection in 

 Cambridge. These are ovate and show a slight gloss. The ground 

 color is characteristic of the species, varying from cream-white to 

 pale "seashell pink"; they are marked much like other kingbirds' 

 eggs with tlie same colors, and the spots are mainly grouped about 

 tlie larger end. The measurements of 9 eggs average 24.52 by 18.15 

 millimeters: the eggs showing the four extremes measure 25.4 by 

 18.6, 24.3 by 18.9, 23.8 by 18.0, and 24.1 by 17.6 millimeters. 



Plumages. — Ridgway (1907) describes the young, evidently in Juve- 

 nal plumage, as "essentially like adults, but without orange on crown, 

 gray of head browner (smoke gray or drab gray), back, etc., duller 

 olive, yellow of under parts usually paler, and wing-coverts and rec- 

 trices conspicuously margined with pale cinnamon or bufFy." Mr. 

 van Rossem (Dickey and van Rossem, 1938) writes: 



The plumage sequences parallel those of Tyrannus verticalis and Tyrannus 

 rociferans. At the postjuvenal body molt a body plumage like that of the adults 

 is acquired. The juvenal wing feathers and rectrices are retained, sometimes 

 until the annual molt of the following fall, but are usually replaced either in part 

 or entirely during the first winter and spring. The concealed colored feathers 

 of the crown also are delayed in their appearance until the spring molt. The 

 annual molt commences in some birds as early as the middle of July, and in one 

 specimen is as yet unfinished at so late a date as November 12. About August 1 

 to October 1 is probably the average molting period. The spring molt is ex- 

 tensive and includes a varying number of rectrices. It occurs in February, 

 March, or April. 



The degree of rapidity with which rlie dorsal plumage fades from olive-green 

 to gray is astonishing. Just after the annual and postjuvenal molts the back 

 is uniformly a solid, briglit olive-green, but within a few weeks becomes duller 

 and by midwinter is definitely gray. New feathers coming througli at any time 

 of the year are bright olive-green and this, contrasted with the older, gray ones, 

 gives a mottled appearance. 



Food. — The only information I can find on this subject is the report 

 made by W. L. McAtee to Mr. Norton (1916) on the contents of the 

 stomach of the bird taken in Maine, which were probably not typical 

 of its normal f(X)d except in a general way. These contents were 

 "remains of at least 16 Muscidae, part of them Pallenia rudh, and 

 part of a metallic kind, probably Phormia, 96% ; 1 Scatophaga furcatu 

 and 1 Srjrphu^s sp. 4% : bits of unidentified vegetable matter tr." 



