FAMILY COTINGIDAE 297 



albitorques, and frascrii, while the lores and the feathering at the 

 base of the mandibular rami are black, the side of the head below 

 and behind the eye is clear white. From material that I have seen it 

 is not wholly clear that these two groups actually intergrade. 



ERATOR INQUISITOR FRASERII (Kaup) 



Psaris Frascrii Kaup, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, pt. 19, 1851 (October 28, 1852) 

 p. 47, pis. 2)7, 38. (Veracruz, Mexico.) 



Characters. — Male, somewhat darker gray on breast and back; 

 female, definitely darker above; basal area of the tail darker gray. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Chiriqui, Herrera, Code, and 

 Bocas del Toro), wing 103.9-107.3 (105.3), tail 58.2-65.8 (62.4), 

 culmen from base 23.0-25.7 (23.9), tarsus 20.1-22.1 (21.6) mm. 



Females (10 from Costa Rica, Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro, Herrera, 

 Code, and San Bias), wing 98.2-103.6 (101.2), tail 57.5-61.8 (59.4), 

 culmen from base 22.7-26.4 (24.8), tarsus 21.0-22.4 (21.6) mm. 



Resident. Locally fairly common in forested areas from western 

 Chiriqui and western Bocas del Toro east on both slopes through the 

 Canal Zone; to 1280 meters at the lakes near El Volcan. 



Though generally similar to the Masked Tityra, the two are easily 

 distinguished by their head markings, the male in the present species 

 having the bill and the crown wholly black, and the female by the 

 chestnut-brown cheeks and forehead. While the two kinds may range 

 in the same forested areas, Erator is found more often lower in the 

 trees, also frequently in smaller groups, with both sexes more or less 

 equally represented. In flight this smaller species shows more of a flash 

 of white on the under surface of the wings. It has grunting calls not 

 unlike those of Tityra semifasciata, but these seem more varied and 

 somewhat different in sound. Both kinds are seen regularly in close 

 proximity, and the two associate in this manner with no indication 

 of hostility. 



In the only reports relative to nesting in the present species that 

 I have seen, that of Slud (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 128, 

 1964, p. 232) reports pairs of the subspecies fraserii and of the 

 Tityra "perched amicably beside their respective nesting holes in the 

 same forked stub." Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif., no. 35, 1969, pp. 

 10-19) in a detailed life history in Costa Rica, found E. i. fraserii 

 nesting in woodpecker holes that were inaccessible as they ranged 

 from 12 to 30 meters or more above the ground. The eggs remain 

 unknown. Often the holes chosen are in use by the woodpeckers as 

 sleeping quarters. As the female cotinga carries in leaves and other 



