FAMILY PIPRIDAE 321 



flights to and fro. . . . the wings make a brisk humming sound. . . . 

 Between bouts of darting back and forth, a very short sharp 'zit, zit' 

 is often uttered. . . . with the legs stretched, the head held low and 

 the tail elevated, the bird 'slides' backwards along its perch. . . ." 

 Display flights are accompanied by sharp notes, and finally a buzzing 

 sound as the birds alight. 



In my own observations I have believed that this buzzing sound 

 is made by rapid vibration of the wing feathers and tail. The secon- 

 daries and the rectrices are stiff as in the red-capped species, but the 

 enlarged basal area of the shaft is smaller, as wings and tail are 

 appreciably shorter. In the present species I have never heard the 

 sharp popping and tearing sounds that accompany the displays of 

 Pipra mentalis. On the whole the Golden-headed Manakin assembles 

 in larger groups in which the activity as the birds shift about is 

 considerable. 



Snow (loc. cit., p. 191) describes the nest as a "small, shallow 

 cup slung in the fork between the two horizontal twigs of a sapling or 

 shrub, or the lower branches of a tree. It is thinly woven of brownish 

 fibers and rootlets, and often has a few dead leaves bound into the 

 bottom of the cup or hanging from the under side. The cup is usually 

 so thin that the contents are partly visible from below. . . . the 

 breeding season extends from January to August." Belcher and 

 Smooker (Ibis, 1937, pp. 225-226) in Trinidad describe two eggs in 

 a set as elongated blunt ovals to regular ovals "pale greenish-yellow. 

 . . . smooth, slightly glossy shell is thickly spotted and longitudinally 

 streaked with umber-brown so as to form a wreath about the larger 

 end ; over these markings a few black hairlines appear, and under 

 them some of lilac-grey." They measure 19.5x14.5 and 19.1 X 

 15 mm. 



This species feeds mainly on small-sized berries, supplemented by 

 insects and spiders. The birds are quite vocal, frequently uttering 

 quick calls that increase and become more varied during the excite- 

 ment of their displays. My attention often has been attracted to them 

 by their chirping followed by a few notes of sibilant song. Males 

 in plain immature dress of the first year regularly sing and display 

 like those fully adult. Pipra erythrocephala seems to be one of the 

 most abundant numerically of its family with a vast distribution in 

 forested areas from eastern Panama through northern South 

 America. Throughout this range there is some variation in the 

 depth of head color in males, and in body color in females and im- 

 mature males, and also differences in size. A race berlepschi, in 

 which the head in the male is paler yellow, with no orange-red line 



