328 BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 3 



larly, singly, or in small groups of a dozen, both in forest and in more 

 open areas at the borders of gallery forest, or in second growth. They 

 have come regularly to fruiting trees to fly out and seize the berries, 

 sometimes feeding thus in company with honeycreepers. In such 

 activities they are vivacious in movement, often darting quickly 

 through undergrowth and the lower trees, sometimes calling softly. 

 Males at times rested with the body inclined somewhat forward, and 

 the elongated feathers of the white throat patch raised, frequently 

 flitting the wings. 



The detailed history by Skutch (cit. supra, pp. 68-75, which 

 refers to the present race of Corapipo altera though headed Corapipo 

 lencorrhoa) describes the males, at times several in company, using 

 moss-covered, fallen logs in their mating displays. They are described 

 as approaching the log, moving in undulating flight with slowly 

 beating wings, with body held upright, tail raised until nearly parallel 

 with the back, and feathers puffed, until the bird "resembles a tiny 

 black balloon with a gleaming white patch on its forward side, just 

 below its top, as he bounces through the air toward his mossy landing 

 platform." While several males may be present they display inde- 

 pendently without interfering with one another. In a different ap- 

 proach the bird may move rapidly, and then the wings may make a 

 sound "hardly a firecracker-like snap, such as made by Manacus and 

 Pipra mentalis, but rather a duller flap, which may be roughly 

 imitated by suddenly jerking taut a piece of stout cloth." Often 

 this is followed by sharp, harsh calls. 



A nest seen March 29, 1964, at 1060 meters near Cafias Gordas, 

 Costa Rica, was a shallow structure of plant fibers with a few leaf 

 fragments in the bottom, placed on a fork of a slender branch about 

 6^ meters from the ground. Two eggs deposited by April 7, seen by 

 means of a small mirror at the end of a slender pole, "appeared 

 dull white, heavily marked with brown, one over its whole surface, 

 the other chiefly on the thicker end." Further observations terminated 

 when the eggs disappeared. The tiny nest was about 75 mm in 

 diameter by 32 high, with the nest cavity only about 13 mm deep. 



Beyond Panama this race is recorded in southwestern Costa Rica 

 along the Pacific slope of the Cordillera de Talamanca, and north to 

 above the valley of the Rio Pirris (at Guaitil), descending in the low- 

 lands to near the coast at Golf o Dulce. 



CORAPIPO ALTERA ALTERA Hellmayr 



Corapipo Icucorrhea altera Hellmayr, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, vol. 16, May 8, 1906, 

 p. 84 (Carrillo, Costa Rica.) 



