FAMILY FURNARIIDAE llj 



shaded quebrada in heavy forest it flew with a complaining call to 

 cling briefly on the vertical surface of the base of a tree. In open 

 gallery forest near the Rio Chiman one flew past low near the ground 

 and alighted a few meters away. Immediately it began turning and 

 throwing large damp leaves by tossing them with its bill to search 

 beneath them, working with such rapidity and energy that the dis- 

 turbance resembled that made by a small whirlwind. 



Habits and life history of the nominate subspecies described in 

 detail by Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif., no. 35, 1969, pp. 296-304) from 

 observations on Barro Colorado Island, Canal Zone, and in south- 

 western Costa Rica, correct various errors in literature dealing with 

 these birds. As he has noted, in feeding they do not move leaves 

 by picking them up in the bill, but push and overturn them with the 

 bill closed, in movements so rapid that at times the action suggests 

 that of a minor whirlwind. The song, given by both sexes, is a "clear 

 trill, delivered in two ascending movements, the sound of which ends 

 in a little silvery tinkle." 



The birds nest in tunnels, one found on Barro Colorado on March 

 28, 1935, being dug in the earthen face of a small stream bank that 

 ran through heavy forest. At the end of the passage, less than a 

 meter in length, he found a cup-shaped nest made of loosely matted 

 leaf fibers in which there was a single nestling. Another site, near 

 EI General in Costa Rica, was in a mass of earth adhering to the 

 vertical bank of the root mass of a large tree thrown prostrate by 

 heavy wind. Four successive nestings were in shallow tunnels dug 

 in this mass of limited thickness. Male and female worked at the 

 excavation carrying loosened earth in their bills to drop outside the 

 entrance. The cups of leaf fragments for the eggs were shallow at 

 first but had steady addition throughout incubation. This labor was 

 shared by the pair. Each set had two white unmarked eggs, which 

 became stained with mud as incubation progressed. One set measured 

 27.4x21.0, and 27.4x20.6 mm. The nestlings at hatching had a 

 sparse covering of gray down. These nestings came in October 1945 ; 

 May, October, and December 1946 (Skutch, Naturalist in Costa Rica, 

 1971, p. 212). 



SCLERURUS GUATEMALENSIS SALVINI Salvador! and Festa 



Sclerurus salvini Salvadori and Festa, Boll. Mus. Zool. Anat. Comp. Torino, 

 vol. 15, No. 362, November 17, 1899, p. 23. (Rio Peripa, northwestern 

 Ecuador.) 



Characters. — Darker, more sooty brown, above and below. 



A male taken near the Rio Pequeni, at the Peluca Hydrographic 



