266 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 3 



among other birds. Their flight is direct and fairly rapid, accompanied 

 by a rattling sound, heard when birds are near. 



In southwestern Costa Rica they are more numerous, as Slud 

 (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 128, 1964, pp. 225-226) found 

 them fairly common from the Gulf of Nicoya to Golfo Dulce, and 

 inland from the coastal lowlands to 1375 meters along the slopes 

 of the mountains. Near Golfo Dulce they ranged in the borders 

 of mangroves. He recorded the call as "a high-pitched thin and level 

 whistle lasting almost a full second." 



Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif., no. 35, 1969, pp. 78-79), in this same 

 region, found a nest about 9 meters above the ground in a tree rising 

 in second growth near heavy forest. The shallow cup of coiled 

 tendrils and other plant material was built slowly during a period of 

 nearly a month by the female alone, with no male in attendance. The 

 two eggs, examined by means of a mirror fastened to a pole, were 

 "bufify, speckled all over with brown which was heaviest on the thick 

 end." 



COTINGA NATTERERII (Boissonneau) : Natterer's Cotinga, 

 Cotinga Azul Mayor 



Ampclis Nattcrcrii Boissonneau, Rev. Zool., vol. 3, January 1840, p. 2. 

 ("Bogota," = forests of the lower Rio Magdalena, Colombia.) 



Medium size ; male bright blue, throat black with a faint purple 

 sheen ; breast purple ; female, paler than that of Ridgway's cotinga, 

 more buff below. 



Description. — Length 180-200 mm. Male with only the tenth 

 primary shorter than the others, the ninth not narrowed distally. 

 Female with the outer primaries not narrowed ; upper tail coverts 

 in both sexes longer, more than two-thirds to more than three-fourths 

 as long as the tail. 



Adult male, bright blue (the feathers basally black); on upper 

 surface crown and hindneck darker blue than back ; a black orbital 

 ring, broader in front of eye ; black line at base of bill very narrow, 

 not extending on loral area ; wings and tail black ; inner primaries and 

 secondaries, and central rectrices edged narrowly with blue ; middle 

 and lesser wing coverts blue, in part with black bases showing ; 

 greater coverts black, edged narrowly with blue ; chin bright blue 

 mixed with black ; throat, foreneck, and upper breast black with a 

 faint purple sheen ; a central area on lower breast and abdomen 

 purple ; axillars and under wing coverts black, edged with blue. 



Female, above dull grayish brown, the feathers edged narrowly 



