NESTING HABITS OF OROPENDOLA — CHAPMAN 379 



seconds, she left the tree nnd nt the end of about two minutes returned and 

 entered No. 5 n^'aiii. Unvins my phiss now turned on the nest I saw that she 

 carried somethin;: in her bill. Movinp with my 'J4-p<»wer glass to the end of 

 the laboratory I saw, when some two minutes later she reentered the nest, that 

 she carried what a|>peared to be a small bit of a brown leaf. She entered tl»e 

 nest so (|Uiikly, however, that I eould not be sure of the exact uatiire of her 

 burden, but two visits later she brou;;ht an entire leaf perhaps three-fourths of 

 an inch Ion?. It seemed evident, therefore that .she was building a nest. I say 

 "she" for the one that remained outside, perohinir within a few inches of the 

 nest opening, called constantly and jn'oeted the builder with vociferous, excited 

 twitterings on her return. DuriiiR the succeedinR 20 minutes 10 visits were 

 made by the female, each time with buildinf? material. Only twice during the 

 succecHling four hours did Zarhiinchnu appear. Once a female swept down as 

 the female I.cgatus was about to enter, and at 3.5"!. while the female LrgatuJt 

 was in the nest and the male at its door, a Zarhynchus came with the apparent 

 intention of entering but she retreated quickly before the fury of the Lcgatus 

 attack. Half a minute later the female tlycatcher continued her work. 



Thereafter Legaius was left in undisturbed possession of this nest. 

 It may be noted that my records now showed this nest to have been 

 visited by Cas^idLv, attacked by owls and cluiined by Legating. 



For the succeeding seven days Legatvs continued peacefully to 

 occupy, or at least frequent, this nest No. 5 of group 1. but P^ebruary 

 10, to my surprise, both birds were seen fiercely attacking nests Nos. 

 1 and 2 in group 2, fully 40 feet above No. 5 of group 1. They 

 perched at the entrance to the nest, fluttered excitedly and peered 

 within ju.st as though they were prospecting for a home. At 6 p. m. one 

 was .'^een sitting within No. 5, its head only showing at the entrance. 



The combined attacks of Legatus^ and of what I believe to be 

 Pulsatrix^ finally resulted in the complete disorganization and aban- 

 donment of the Zarhynchus colony, and on February 26 I write 

 '' apparently not an oropendola left in the tree. Lcgatv^s having no 

 fresh fields to conquer may now devote herself to her own affair.s.*' 



From February 10 to March 4 Lcgatus was heard calling with un- 

 diminished energy, but I saw only what I believe to be the male bird 

 and assumed that his mate was sitting and would at any day produce 

 a brood in nest No. 5. On ]March 4 the female was seen preening 

 near the male but I did not succeed in tracing her to a nest, and on 

 March 5 it appeared tliat they were interested in nest No. 2 of group 

 2, and apparently had deserted No. 5 of group 1, in which they had 

 built a nest. No evidences of building in No. 2 were observed but 

 the evidence indicated that on ]\rarcli 12 she was inruliating in that 

 nest. My record follows: 



8 a. m. Female Lcgatus perches near the entrance to No. 2, group 2, the male 

 nearby. She preens her plumage disclosing a wide parting from sternum to 

 vent, which bespeaks the sitting bird, then enters the nest. 



March 15, I record : 



7..S0 a. m. A male Znrh]inchHK alislifs on nest next to that of Lrgntus. 

 They both attack with frenzy and finally drive him off. Then the male Lcgatus 



