FAMILY FALCONIDAE 279 



The common one of cacao in imitation of its calls is usual from 

 Costa Rica south through northern South America. Another ap- 

 pellation from the same source is deslenguado, often abbreviated to 

 'lengiiado, explained as given because of resemblance to the uncouth 

 sounds made by persons who have lost their tongues, a name that 

 may date back to the early period when this was a punishment for 

 certain crimes. Another term, heard in Bocas del Toro, is hahlador, 

 whose derivation is readily understood. The Cuna Indians at Armila 

 called it pai kd kd, apparently in imitation of its uncouth calls. The 

 cacao also is one of the birds of ill omen called pa jar o brujo — wizard 

 or sorcerer bird — which superstition says, may bring misfortune if 

 killed. 



The food of the cacao is mainly the larvae of wasps and bees, and 

 apparently includes also quantities of the adults of the abundant 

 little black stingless bees, obtained by tearing open the nests of these 

 species. Some of my specimens have had the crop and stomach 

 crammed with these insects, and often when I have handled them 

 when freshly killed I have noted the sweetish odor common to many 

 kinds in these groups of Hymenoptera. That they are also fruit 

 eaters is indicated by one that had the stomach filled with seeds and 

 other remains of small drupes. 



The breeding habits are unknown. The badly worn wing and tail 

 tips on some of the specimens I have examined may be indication 

 that they place their eggs in holes, though related species in southern 

 South America build nests. One female that I collected on the Rio 

 Chucunaque in Darien, on March 21 held an egg nearly ready for 

 the shell. 



Daptrius americanus as a species ranges from Chiapas in southern 

 Mexico south through Central America and South America to Bolivia 

 and southern Brazil. Two races have been recognized that currently 

 have been treated as meeting in central Panama. The only distinc- 

 tion is in size, the more northern group being larger. The specimens 

 that I have been able to examine indicate that while two forms may 

 be accepted the ranges assigned need adjustment northward. There 

 is no appreciable difference in size between male and female, and so 

 the two sexes may be considered together. Birds from Guatemala 

 and Costa Rica (11 specimens) with the wing from 360 to 375 mm. 

 are Daptrius americanus guatemaletisis (Swann), a form that ranges 

 from the Pacific slope in Chiapas and Guatemala to southern Costa 

 Rica, where there is intergradation with typical americanus. The 

 link between the two is not a continuing cline, as some have sup- 

 posed, since from Panama southward the wing of Daptrius ameri- 



