FAMILY COTINGIDAE 3OI 



somewhat iridescent purple throat, though usually this is hidden so 

 that they appear as plain black as their mates. On the wing, when 

 crossing rivers or other openings, the flight appears slow and tilting, 

 and the birds seem heavy in body. Occasionally, when I have whistled 

 a rapid imitation of the call, a group has come into branches overhead, 

 where they moved about quickly and excitedly. 



In calling, males swell the throat so that the gorget stands out like 

 a shield. And as birds alight after flight they may shake the tail 

 quickly from side to side. Sick (Living Bird, Cornell Lab. Orn., 

 1967, p. 20) in Brazil suggests that the "courtship, accompanied 

 by loud and continuous calls, resembles the display of manakins in 

 several ways : a moustache display ... a quivering of flight feathers 

 that recalls Pipra; a melodious voice." 



On the Rio Chucunaque in Darien, at the end of March I saw two 

 fly across the river, with one carrying a slender spray of nesting 

 material. Eisenmann (Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 117, 1952, 

 p. 38) noted a pair building a nest on Barro Colorado Island on 

 June 28, 1951. Apparently incubation had begun on July 14. Hazel 

 ElHs (Wils. Bull., 1952, pp. 98-100) in further observation at this 

 site noted that the pair came together, with the male carrying most 

 of the nesting material, but with the female arranging it in place. 

 The nest was not accessible. In Surinam, Haverschmidt (Birds of 

 Surinam, 1968, p. 284) reported a nest located in a tree "at that time 

 leafless, at a height of about 20 meters at the edge of a forest." He 

 also saw a male building a nest. 



In a detailed study in Guyana, Snow (Living Bird, Cornell Lab. 

 Orn., 1971, pp. 5-17) found fruit-crows associated in groups of three 

 or four individuals that were "closely integrated social groups which 

 not only feed, rest, preen and almost certainly roost together, but also 

 jointly attend a single nest." The two nests that he studied in detail 

 were cup-shaped, loosely built of vegetable fibers on a base of small 

 sticks. They were placed in trees standing in forest. One nest was 

 about 10 meters, the other 20 meters or so above the ground. Each 

 nest tree was closely guarded by its group against intrusion by toucans, 

 jays, caciques, and other birds. At one nest the attendants included 

 two males, a female, and one other, a bird in female dress but with 

 two red feathers on one side of the throat. The other nest was at- 

 tended by three individuals, a male and two birds in black plumage, 

 one certainly a female, the other probably of that sex. 



In the first nest only the female brought building material but one 

 male occasionally sat in the structure, apparently to assist in shaping 



