FAMILY FORMICARIIDAE I3I 



and 29.4x22.2 mm. Both male and female incubated by day, with 

 the female alone at night. The young at hatching were dark colored, 

 and without down. 



Two eggs in the National Museum collection identified as of this 

 race, collected July 22, 1922, by Austin Smith at Puerto Jimenez, 

 Puntarenas, Costa Rica, are subelliptical, very faintly bufify white, 

 with fine scattered spots of cinnamon over most of the surface, more 

 abundant and broader as a cap on the larger end. They are some- 

 what larger, as they measure 31.3x23.2 and 30.5x22.3 mm. 



The nest of the race Taraba major semifasciatus in Trinidad 

 differs somewhat as it is described by Belcher and Smooker (Ibis, 

 1936, p. 804) as "a deep pensile cup, suspended below a horizontal 

 fork or crossed vines ; it is strongly woven of black horsehair-like 

 fibres, but . . . the eggs can be seen through the nest from below. 

 ... In the few nests seen the male has always been incubating." 

 Three sets of eggs of this race, collected by these authors, in the 

 British Museum (Natural History), each have two eggs. In two 

 sets one egg is elliptical and the other subelliptical in form. In the 

 third both are subelliptical. In all, the ground color is faintly buffy 

 white. These eggs have somewhat heavier markings than those of 

 melanocrissus described above. Two sets are marked rather broadly 

 with irregular blotches, spots, and lines of chocolate, light to dark 

 gray, and dull brown, mainly on the larger end where in part the 

 markings form an irregular wreath. Markings on the opposite end 

 are less in amount and extent. In the third set the spots and blotches 

 are smaller, and there are fewer lines. Measurements differ some- 

 what also. Those of the three sets are as follows: 26.5x21.2, 27.3 X 

 22.2; 27.6x21.0, 27.7x21.5; and 28.8x21.5, 29.0x21.5 mm. 



The food seems to be mainly insects, as in those I have examined 

 I have found ants, roaches, and caterpillars. They also take small 

 lizards. 



Two birds that I collected on the Rio Jaque in Darien were recog- 

 nized by Choco Indian friends in their language as the jorojoro. 



As a species these birds range from northern Oaxaca and Veracruz 

 in southern Mexico, through Central and South America to northern 

 Argentina. In this vast area there are two main population types, 

 one from Trinidad and eastern Venezuela southward, in which the 

 tail is strongly barred with black and white (typical T. m. major, 

 with the allied races stagurus and sem,ifasciatus) , and all others in 

 which the tail is black, with white markings restricted to occasional 

 narrow tips on the outer rectrices. Females do not have these mark- 



