368 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



alight on the water. Once on the surface they swim or fly into the 

 cover bordering the shore. 



When I have come quietly in a cayuco into their haunts where the 

 birds remained concealed, I have often induced them to call by 

 striking a paddle on the side of the canoe. The note, resembling the 

 syllable kow, in tone closely like the call of the pied-billed grebe, 

 may be given once or may be repeated quickly several times. 



On Gatun Lake they frequent sheltered coves, and may be seen in 

 such localities around Barro Colorado Island. 



Enrique van Horn, of the staff of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, 

 who has accompanied me on much of my work on the Chagres, told 

 me that the nest, built of sticks, placed on a bush or branch over the 

 water, is small in size and flimsy in structure. Soon after hatching 

 the young enter the water where they are carried on the back of the 

 parent, in the manner well known among grebes. The adult when 

 alarmed may dive, when the young cling tightly. As the bird cannot 

 go far with this encumbrance it is soon again on the surface, with the 

 young still in place. 



A nest that Enrique Van Horn collected for me on the Rio 

 Chilibre near its junction with the Chagres, on June 16, 1963, is 

 made of twigs and dried stems of coarse marsh plants, ranging in 

 diameter from small to pencil size. These formed a flattened plat- 

 form approximately 180 by 225 mm., with a slight depression that 

 held 3 eggs, buft'y white, spotted finely with cinnamon and pale 

 purple rather uniformly over the entire surface. They measure 26.1 

 X20.9, 26.8x20.1, and 27.3x20.7 mm. A second nest, found on 

 July 15, was similar in construction, with measurements of 200 by 

 250 mm, and held 4 eggs which could not be saved. Both nests were 

 placed in bushes that hung over the water, elevated about a meter 

 above the surface. 



Schonwetter (Handb. Ool., pt. 6, 1962, p. 355, pi. 7, fig. 11) 

 describes the eggs as reddish cream, dotted with lilac gray, dark brown 

 and reddish markings, denser around the larger end, with the size 

 range of 27.1-29.3x20-20.6 mm. 



An early account by Wied (Beitrag. Naturg. Brasilien, vol. 4, 

 pt. 2, 1833, pp. 827-828) states that the young when hatched are 

 naked ("vollig nacktes") and in this condition are carried beneath the 

 wings of the parent. While this statement has been repeated by later 

 authors, so far as I am aware it has not been verified by later ob- 

 servations. 



At night I have found the finfoot sleeping on branches a few feet 

 above the water. 



